Vol. 549 No. 4
3 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach his plans to produce specific guidelines for the operation of the communications unit within his Department in the run up to and during the course of the general election campaign; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5391/02]
4 Mr. Noonan asked the Taoiseach if he will arrange for the material compiled by the communications unit in his Department to be made available to all Members of Dáil Éireann; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6676/02]
5 Mr. Noonan asked the Taoiseach the number of staff assigned to the communications unit in his Department; the number who are seconded from other Departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6677/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 5, inclusive, together.
There are six members of staff seconded to the communications unit: one from my Department and five from other Departments. A seventh member of staff transferred to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs in early January and no replacement has yet been appointed. As the Deputy is well aware, the Civil Service works for the Government of the day and does not have any remit in terms of providing a service to Members of the Oireachtas. Therefore, I have no plans to extend the services of the communications unit to Members of the House.
The staff of the communications unit are subject to the usual conventions which apply to civil servants in relation to political impartiality in their work, whether at election time or otherwise. I am satisfied that they will continue to observe these conventions throughout any election period and to this end they will be instructed to continue to deal with Departments on the same basis as before the election, in support of this ongoing work.
The Taoiseach will recall that we had discussions before on this political unit paid for by the taxpayer in the Department of the Taoiseach – a political unit as decided by the Office of the Information Commissioner. We know that the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs is a candidate in the forthcoming general election because we have seen his advertisements – paid for by the taxpayer – in the Department's information. Can the Taoiseach confirm that all other members of the Government are candidates in the forthcoming general election?
Can he confirm that this unit will supply Ministers, on a daily basis throughout the course of the general election campaign, with a news digest of what has been published that day relevant to their Departments? Can he confirm that that news digest would, for example, cover a press release from a Labour Party conference in the course of a campaign highlighting the failure of the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government with responsibility for housing and that this unit would take a transcript or précis of that press conference early in the morning and remit it to the private secretary in the Minister's Department so that Minister could then issue some kind of attempted rebuttal or response?
If the Taoiseach can confirm that the people in question will be candidates in the election, that the six civil servants – whose gross cost is €300,000 – will be collating information pertinent to the affairs of the Department and communicating it to the candidate who happens to be the Minister enabling the Minister to respond in whatever way he or she might want to, would he agree that this is a unit which, during an election campaign, is manifestly political in its impact and operational effect? Does he not agree that he should stand down the communications unit during the course of the election campaign?
I disagree with most of what the Deputy said. It is not a political unit and not staffed with political people. It is not undertaking a political function, but noting the news reports of the day. It would not give detailed reports on Labout Party press conferences. Press offices in Departments have such a responsibility in their everyday work. In the previous Government none of the press offices was closed down, nor was anybody moved out when Deputy Quinn was involved.
The projected annual cost of the unit is half what the Deputy said, €156,000. Its job is non-political and is of no great help to anyone other than in noting news reports. It certainly would not be of any great benefit to a Minister who is a general election candidate. He or she would use his or her party political press offices for the kind of information about which the Deputy is talking.
I put it to the Taoiseach, once again, that the function of this group of civil servants is to gather information, digest news reports published during the day, as reported in the national media, both print and live, and communicate it where it is of interest to the relevant Ministers. If there is a press conference in the course of an election campaign by any of the Opposition parties which criticises the lamentable performance of any of the Government Ministers – sadly one would have many from which to select – this will, in the course of events, be communicated to the relevant Minister, who is a candidate.
Will the Taoiseach confirm that anything pertaining to the activities of a Department will be monitored by the unit and conveyed directly or indirectly to the candidate concerned who happens to be a Minister? That is manifestly political during the course of an election campaign, whatever the Taoiseach's protestations about its function prior to the commencement of an election campaign. It behoves him in the light of the restrictions on expenditure to stand down the unit during the course of an election campaign, otherwise, from the legal advice we have received, it should be included in the spending guidelines for all affected candidates.
I totally refute what the Deputy is saying. The unit highlights the headlines of the day from normal programmes. The information goes to the office holders of the day plus several hundred others. It goes to a Department if there is something of relevance to it, but during an election civil servants would not be involved in replying to it.
That is my point.
They never do so. It was never done in any Department with which I was involved. I do not know how the Deputy operated in the Department with which he was involved, but it is certainly not how the system works in a Department during an election. Those who do this work would not be politically involved to anything like the same degree as those who work in press offices and would be civil servants to Ministers. The Deputy did not let any staff go when a Minister.
This is a different unit.
The unit is not political. What the Deputy said is total nonsense and he knows it.
It is not.
Will the Taoiseach confirm that the unit will continue to act as it does now during the course of an election campaign? Will he also confirm that part of its work at present is to monitor, record and transmit information about statements made by members of the Opposition regarding Ministers? Will he further confirm that this will continue during the election campaign? Will he explain the reason he does not regard this as political activity?
During a general election campaign the unit would not give information on party political conferences. That would not be within the convention of the Civil Service. It is not now and would not be during an election campaign. If the Deputy gives a press conference, the unit will not monitor it.
It is now.
If there was a headline stating Deputy Noonan said such and such a thing on the one o'clock news, it would perhaps have one line referring to this, but that would be the extent of it. If somebody looked for a transcript of the press conference, that would be outside the Civil Service convention and the unit would not be involved.
Is it going to change it?
What about anything relating to a Department?
It would do it now, but not during a general election. I said Civil Service convention would be followed. It stipulates that during an election campaign civil servants should not engage in such work, but the practice has been that those involved in Departments would be so engaged. Such civil servants do and have been engaged, which is a different matter. The people concerned do not have a political function in any way.
I draw the attention of the Taoiseach to a statement from one of the masters of the various maternity hospitals. In making a statement on the forthcoming referendum he said they had been contacted yesterday evening by a Government representative looking for a copy of the statement in advance of the press conference today. Would that be one of the functions of the communications unit?
It certainly would not. The unit operates under Civil Service convention which it follows to the letter of the law. To suggest in any way that it has a political function is nonsense.
I disagree with the Taoiseach on this matter and neither of us can be proven right. The Taoiseach states this facility in respect of news gathering and monitoring, which is paid for by the taxpayer, is staffed by civil servants who are not politically partisan. To put the issue beyond any doubt, since the Taoiseach is asserting that it is non-political and non-partisan, I propose that all election candidates should be circulated with information from this service or else it should be stood down. It can be either one or the other, but the Taoiseach cannot have it both ways. It cannot be said the gathering of news relevant to the main stories of the day is not central to the very essence of a political campaign. If the Taoiseach insists it is not political, which I cannot accept, the only reasonable compromise would be to circulate the information to every candidate and let us all benefit, otherwise the essence of having a level playing pitch is not maintained.
I know the Deputy is not being serious. Why did his office in the Department of Finance under the previous Administration, which was staffed by civil servants, not stand down and how could they continue to act as well as all the other Departments? Not one civil servant stood down during the last election campaign.
They did not perform the same function.
They followed Civil Service convention, but not one civil servant stood down. The Deputy is asserting that the six individuals concerned should stand down while the hundreds of others who worked in the last election did not. That is the issue that Deputies Noonan and Quinn will not answer.
