Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 January 2019
10. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Taoiseach the amount his Department spent on communications and advertising in 2018; the way in which this compares with the years 2011 to 2017, inclusive; and the proposed spending for 2019. [1359/19]
View answer11. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the proposed spending in 2019 by his Department on communications. [2545/19]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together.
A decision was taken in 2017 to fund and run cross-governmental public information programmes centrally. As a result of this, in the period between the fourth quarter of 2017 and July 2018, several public information campaigns aimed at improving citizens' lives, such as the Healthy Ireland campaign, the Project Ireland 2040 campaign and the self-employed benefits campaign, were run and funded centrally by the Department of the Taoiseach. This was a departure in approach from previous years, when such campaigns were led and funded by the relevant line Department. The amount spent on these campaigns in 2018 was €1.8 million. Included in this figure is the spend on the purchase of space in various media, including print, digital, cinema and radio, as well as creative production.
This is greater than the amount spent between 2011 and 2017 but it is not a like-for-like comparison. That is precisely because of the decision to change the approach and to centralise such spending. Over 90% of spending in 2018 was incurred in the first part of the year prior to July 2018 as campaigns were being run and funded centrally during that time. Following a budget cut of €2.5 million in mid-2018, public information campaigns are now funded by the relevant line Department, as opposed to being funded centrally by my Department. This is a reversion to the former practice under previous Governments.
Spending on communications in my Department from 2011 to 2017, inclusive, varied significantly year on year, from a low of approximately €6,000 in 2014 to €580,000 in 2012 and €100,000 in 2011. That figure for 2011 includes expenses associated with the management of logistics for public attendance at the visit of President Obama and the National Day of Commemoration. The figure for 2012 includes a public information campaign on the fiscal stability treaty. Given the change of approach to the funding of campaigns, it is not intended to fund large campaigns from my Department in 2019.
Spending for 2019, therefore, will be significantly lower than that for 2018 and will be sourced from the administration budget of my Department. It is not possible to give an indicative figure as to what the outlay will be as this will depend on factors such as whether there are any significant inward State visits and if events, such as the outcome of the Brexit negotiations for example, require some additional expenditure on communication.
One of the most striking things about the Taoiseach's Government has been its absolutely dedicated focus on public relations and spin. The Taoiseach had to withdraw the strategic communications unit but I am not sure that his Government, overall, will withdraw from the field of public relations. We were told recently about the massive cost overruns in the national children's hospital. I believe the Taoiseach indicated that cutbacks in the Department of Health alone would amount to €50 million and that collective cutbacks in other Departments would amount to another €50 million.
How much of a cutback is the Department of the Taoiseach going to take to help with the funding of our badly needed, and badly budgeted for, national children's hospital? I ask that because the Taoiseach was the line Minister when these initial estimates were made. Does the Taoiseach intend to take any responsibility in his own Department, rather than making Departments which give vital services to people, such as education and others, bear the brunt of the cuts? Will the Department of the Taoiseach bear any significant share in these cuts that have been announced for other Departments? The specific cuts scaring many people concern indications that it may be impossible to replace worn-out machinery and facilities in hospitals that badly need such replacement.
I welcome the clarification that the Taoiseach is moving back to the traditional way whereby health promotional initiatives are funded by the Department of Health and education initiatives by the Department of Education and Skills. Notwithstanding the Taoiseach stating that his initiative was a new departure, taking the budget line away from line Departments, €290,000 was spent on promoting Healthy Ireland yet the Department of Health's own promotion was not diminished. It was a case of the funding being as well as, not instead of. There was also spending of €30,000 on videos promoting the budget last year.
What communication plan does the Taoiseach's Department have for this year? As the Taoiseach said, some things might be unknown. Will there, for example, be a referendum this year? Do we know and, if so, will the Taoiseach's Department be involved in expending money on that? Has that been decided yet? To be clear, in respect of normal line Department expenditure, is the Taoiseach telling us that his Department will no longer be involved in any expenditure to co-support or co-fund promotional videos or social media in that regard?
We have been seeking a statement from the Taoiseach for well over a year on what protections are being put in place to prevent the abuse of public funding to promote members of Government personally and to link communications to political rather than public priorities. Before the current Government took office, advertising was not undertaken for basic announcements and speeches but this is becoming common practice. This appears to be part of the Taoiseach's stated objective of finding a way of balancing journalists, whom he believes are too negative.
In the past, the Taoiseach promised me that he would publish guidelines on when paid promotion may be undertaken. He has so far failed to do this. Will it be done any time soon? In that context, who decides what publications get allocations to do magazines on various issues? Yesterday, there was a very fine piece in The Irish Times on the centenary of the Dáil. It was a large publication and I think it was funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Did other newspapers get the same access or what happened with the broadcasting of the event? Who makes these decisions?
I ask that question because I know when we got documentation under freedom of information provisions well over a year ago, it was clear that the then Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Humphreys, was making the personal decision as to how much money each publication would get. That is open to abuse. No one is going to refuse public funding. There should be far more transparency, as well as set guidelines and set rules on how allocations of that kind are made. The Government is otherwise open to the argument that it is currying favour through that use of public money. Let us call a spade a spade. The last time I raised this issue certain people in the media world were annoyed that I did so but there needs to be transparency on this issue.
I have no issue with funding being put aside, in the form of a general sum, in order that public service obligations of the kind that I have just mentioned can be met by the print media. It does, however, have to be done at arm's length in a transparent way and not at the behest of a Minister or the Government itself. That is fair and that is where we should be heading. All of the advertising of the national development plan, NDP, last year was about various projects and specific plans and most mentioned aspect was the new children's hospital. That was the biggie in the NDP.
We know now that there has been a huge increase in the cost of that project, as I mentioned earlier. It is more than €1 billion than provided for in the NDP. It constitutes 9% of the total capital health provision. I will add that many of the plans for other hospitals have not moved at all. The Taoiseach mentioned that inflation was a factor in the cost of the national children's hospital. Does that mean then that the cost for the new National Maternity Hospital is going to go up dramatically? Does it mean that costs for other hospital projects are going to also go up dramatically? How stands that NDP in respect of health now and, in particular, the national children's hospital?
The Taoiseach will have about four minutes. I call Deputy McDonald.
Will the Taoiseach confirm when the referendum on the extension of voting rights in the Presidential election will be put to the people? This topic was already raised by Deputy Howlin but I would like a direct answer.
On these matters generally, the Government will continue to engage in what Government should do. I refer to policy formation, programme implementation and communicating with the public. All of those things work together. We cannot get our policies across the line if we are not willing to communicate them and programme implementation itself requires a degree of communication. The Government, therefore, will do all of those things as it always has. It will communicate and form policy and drive the implementation of those policies and programmes. They all marry with one another. They cannot just be separated.
On the national children's hospital overrun, the increased cost this year is anticipated to be about €100 million. Of that, €50 million will come from the Department of Health and the other €50 million will be spread across the capital budgets of all of the other Departments. I am sure that will include my own, although I am not quite sure what sort of capital budget we have for this year. It is important, though, to see that in context. The total capital budget for this year, the amount we have going to invest in our public infrastructure, is up 25%. It is now up to about €7 billion so we have to reprofile, defer or delay, however it is described, about €100 million out of €7,000 million.
That is in the early stages. The Taoiseach is being disingenuous.
Anyone who has been involved in government in running Departments will know there is regular reprofiling of spending.
A sum of €100 million out of €7,000 million is a reprofiling which will cause some projects to be delayed.
There is a lot of make-believe in all of this.
I guarantee that the level of scaremongering about what will not be done or what might be cancelled will go well beyond anything remotely connected to reality in terms of what we have to do to find that additional funding for the children's hospital.
It is the case that the costs of capital projects across the board are escalating and not just Government projects but also in the private sector. This has much to do with tender price inflation, construction going well, a shortage of construction workers, along with increases in materials and pay costs and professional fees. It is a just statement of fact that the cost of construction projects is rising, not just for the children's hospital. That is a cause of concern for us but it is not necessarily entirely under our control. One can really only know the cost of a project when it goes out to tender. One factor we will have to consider when it comes to large projects in particular is not making the actual final decision as to whether we are going to go ahead until we have the final cost. That has not been the practice in the past. The decision has always been made to go ahead. We may need to consider for a larger projects that we can only go ahead when we have the definite final cost.
The tender came in at €650 million.
No, it did not.
It did. Originally, the tender came in at €650 million.
That was for the Mater site.
That was not for the final complete project.
However, a tender came in.
It was a tender.
A tender came in and the Government went for it.
It was not the tender for the final cost of the project. That only came in more recently.
However, a tender came in.
There is a unique delivery system.
The Department does not have a communications plan for this year. I am sure there will be many things happening which will may require the involvement of the Department in communications, not least around Brexit. It can be done by my Department or by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The affordable childcare scheme will come in later in the year. We need to make sure the people know about that. It will involve a significant increase in subsidies for childcare and the extension of subsidised childcare to middle income families in particular. There will be many reasons we need to speak to the public over the next several months.
It is to buy somebody.
It will be running up to May.
Most of that will be done, however, by the line Departments. Where something crosses more than one Department, my Department may have an involvement in it.
Is that before or after May?
As I said, there is no communications plan. Deputy Micheál Martin asked who decides which publications get which advertising contracts. I do not know who decides that but I do know it is not me. I have never made a decision of that kind.
A Minister did, however.
The Deputy’s understanding of this and the way he is spinning it is not in line with the facts.
It is not about how I am spinning it. I had the documentation and it was black and white.
The referendum is still planned for May but we have to get the legislation through.
