Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 February 2023
1. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach the number of staff that were employed by the public relations unit and press office in his Department as of 20 January 2022 and the number currently so employed. [4437/23]
View answer2. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the Government Information Service unit of his Department. [6927/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.
The Government Information Service, GIS, includes the Government Press Office and the merrionstreet.ie content team and works on a cross-functional and collaborative basis to provide the Taoiseach, the Government and the Department with press office and communications services; ensure strong collaboration and co-ordination among press and communications officials in other Departments and agencies; co-ordinate, amplify and create communications around Government priorities such as Housing for All, climate action and energy, Ukraine, shared island, Brexit, Covid-19 and the national well-being framework; and lead the development of Government communications, facilitate and encourage capacity-building in the area of communications and engagement across the Civil Service and public service and manage the "Government of Ireland" identity and unified web presence, www.gov.ie.
There are 18.6 posts in the division, an increase of one from January 2022. This reflects the increasing workload of the Department, particularly regarding whole-of-government matters, including Ukraine, housing, shared island and climate action and energy.
It is fair to say that the Taoiseach earned a reputation for spin. During the last general election campaign, the current Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, was asked to define the Taoiseach in one word and he used the word "spin". Little did we know that a few months later, both he and the Taoiseach would be spinning around on a rotating Taoiseach deal. It is really important that we have transparency regarding how money is spent in the Department of the Taoiseach in this manner. During the Covid pandemic, tens of thousands of euro was spent advertising a phase 4 reopening. Shortly afterwards, tens of thousands of euro were spent promoting a reclosing, a safe Christmas and a locking down so two separate and contradictory messages were being delivered in a short space of time.
In his first outing as Taoiseach, the Taoiseach spent about €100,000 per month on this. We know the Department of the Taoiseach spent over €1 million on online advertising in 2021. Can the Taoiseach give us some information on the wages earned in the press office in his Department, including the highest wage and the average wage? Are private public relations companies employed by his Department and, if so, how much are they being paid?
I wish to raise Government communications around national security, which is a phrase often used as an umbrella term to avoid engagement on serious issues. On the issue of national security, we have seen serious concerns raised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, in the past week about the use of Hikvision cameras in the Houses of the Oireachtas. I know the Office of Public Works, OPW, is conducting a review but we require an urgent update given that other parliaments, including the European Parliament, have discontinued the use of Hikvision cameras because of concerns about Chinese surveillance of European institutions.
In the past week, we have also seen a ransomware attack on Munster Technological University, with personal data released on the dark web. The refrain of national security is a vital one in this instance but, unfortunately, it is often used to stymie debate and discussion. The Taoiseach will recall I wrote to him and the Tánaiste on 14 December last about the need for national security briefings for Opposition leaders, as is a common practice in other countries.
I am speaking not just about the issues I have just raised but about other concerns that have come to public attention, such as the involvement of dissident republicans in organised crime, the huge cyberattack on the HSE and very serious concerns about Russian Government operations and possible espionage in Ireland. Again, I have raised with the Taoiseach on several occasions the large number of accredited Russian diplomats located in the Russian Embassy in Dublin. I have raised with him reports that a US State Department assessment estimates Russia has covertly spent more than $300 million in recent years to influence politicians in many countries, including European countries. Personally, since I was named on the Russian sanctions list along with many others in this House, a large number of anonymous, or bot, accounts are now targeting my posts on social media. It is very observable that there is an impact from this.
Does the Taoiseach agree that in a democracy, opposition leaders should be briefed on matters of national security, and put in place a system to do so? When will a new national security strategy be published and will it be debated in the Dáil? Will we get an update urgently from the Office of Public Works, OPW, on the Hikvision issue?
We are currently getting regular radio advertisements and other advertisements from the Government Information Service, GIS, indicating to people that support is available for them if they are impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. The problem is that people who are impacted by that crisis are often very uncertain about these fairly general announcements and need a human being they can go and see to explain the often complex and difficult circumstances in which they find themselves when they are applying for things such as the exceptional needs payment. As I have repeatedly raised along with others in this House, we do not have, as we used to, a drop-in community welfare service, where people could go and talk to the community welfare officer, or the relieving officer as they used to be known, and explain their very specific circumstances rather than having to make appointments, which may not be for a few weeks' time, or do things online, which is often difficult for elderly people or other cohorts. While it is all very well having general advertisements and announcements saying people may be entitled to this or that assistance for the cost-of-living crisis, the reality is that if there is not somebody in the community welfare office whom people can drop in to and see on the day, they often struggle and have great difficulty in accessing the supports that may be there. Will the Taoiseach do something as a matter of urgency about returning the drop-in community welfare service to every area so that people can go down on a given day, see a community welfare officer and explain their situation to him or her?
The line of attack from Fine Gael over the past 24 hours seems to be one of arguing that Opposition members’ sums do not add up. I do not know how the sums add up in respect of telling people they have to wait for additional supports while they are struggling to make ends meet, while across Departments more than 192 people are employed in communications, or PR spin to use a different term. The relationship between Departments and Ministers who are particularly bad at communicating and the large number of communications staff who are employed by those same Ministers and Departments is staggering. The Department of Transport has ten communications officers and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has 11. That is 21 communications staff for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, probably the worst communicator in Irish politics. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which the Taoiseach just left, tops the poll, with 15.5 such staff members. How can we justify having almost 200 employees whose sole job is to promote the Government at a time when there are so many pressures on services and on the delivery of supports to workers and families?
In respect of the questions about the communications function in my Department, I am not personally involved in any decisions on advertising, staffing or the awarding of private contracts to anyone for communications purposes. These are matters for the Secretary General. I hear what Deputy Carthy said about communications staff across Departments and I appreciate he has not had any Executive experience of serving in government. For those staff, who are almost all civil servants, they and their unions might be a little offended at the Deputy's suggestion that their job is to handle communications on behalf of politicians or Ministers. That is not the case. Ministers have one press adviser and that person is a special adviser. All the other communications staff working in a Department are civil servants and they do not promote or work on behalf of the Minister. They are there to communicate with the public and the Oireachtas. A lot of their time may be spent on communicating with the Deputy and his party - he might not realise that - and they respond to comments and questions from the media as well.
As for some of the costs, the breakdown of the staff is as follows, and these are the grades at which they are paid: principal officer, one; assistant principal officer, 3.6 whole-time equivalents; administrative officer or higher executive officer, nine; executive officer, four; and clerical officer, one.
On the question regarding Covid-19 communications, €2 million has been allocated for any expenditure that might be needed for Covid-19 public communications this year, although we do not anticipate it is going to be spent. In terms of online advertising, the costs incurred by the Department have fallen in recent years. The figure was €1.45 million in 2020 and, largely as a consequence of Covid, that fell to €1.1 million in 2021 and to €256,000 only last year, so the spend on Covid-related communications has been falling as the restrictions eased and as Covid has become an endemic virus.
On the question of national security briefings for Opposition leaders, I will certainly give that some thought. Different countries do things in different ways. I do not get a regular, quarterly or monthly national security briefing. It tends to happen on a relatively ad hoc basis, as needed. Maybe that should change and perhaps we should give consideration to providing Opposition leaders with national security briefings as well. There is not a tradition of doing that in Ireland. I know it is done in other countries but we would need appropriate safeguards around that and absolute confidence about it. All Opposition leaders are not the same in that regard, if I can put it that way.
Not all Ministers are the same at keeping things confidential.
I think that in the round, the community welfare service works well, and we have seen how community welfare officers have responded to the increased need for exceptional needs payments in the past couple of months, with a significant increase in the number of payments being made. Obviously, that is because people have needed them, but it also demonstrates there is capacity in the system to receive applications and make payments. The system at the moment is a mixture - online, by phone and by appointment - and I think that is probably more efficient in the round than a drop-in service, but it is something for the Minister for Social Protection to work on. I will certainly let her know Deputy Boyd Barrett has raised it on more than one occasion in the House.
