Yes. This relates to the various leaflets, not to the basic document. These were very small leaflets about various aspects. Through this approach, the Government sought to anticipate and respond to the various concerns and information requirements of the electorate.
The total net cost of producing the foregoing material is estimated at £1,000,730 of which £1,000,719 is in respect of the brief guide and the explanatory leaflets and £6,500 is in respect of the information booklet. The total net cost of media advertising taken by the Government in connection with the referendum was £164,263.96.
The criterion which governed the award of the contracts to print these publications was the need to ensure that they were made available to the public within the shortest period possible. On this basis, the contract for printing the brief guide and the explanatory leaflets and other material was awarded to Irish Printers Limited. In the case of the information booklet, which was a revised and updated booklet similar in nature and scope to the explanatory guide to the Single European Act issued in November 1986, it was decided, also with a view to minimising the delay in production, to award the contract to the firm that printed the explanatory guide, namely, Cahill Printers Limited. For this reason, tenders were not sought.
In making this information available, the Government naturally considered that it was in the public interest that the people should be aware of the Government's conviction that it was in Ireland's interest that we should ratify the Single European Act. The Government felt that, given their role as the executive organ of the State in connection with its external relations, they had an important contribution to make to informed public debate on the Single European Act. They considered that they would be failing in their duty if they were to neglect to use all the means at their disposal including press advertising to draw to the attention of the people the implications of the decision they were called on to make. The Government were, accordingly, concerned to explain the reasons they considered that the Single European Act was in Ireland's best interests and why they were asking the electorate to approve the amendment to the constitution which would permit Ireland to ratify the Single European Act.