Enda Kenny
Ceist:1 Mr. Kenny asked the Taoiseach the projected cost in 2004 of the communications unit in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1015/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 24 February 2004
Ceisteanna (1)
Freagraí ó Béal (22 píosaí cainte)
It is estimated the total cost of the communications unit for 2004 is €314,402. Some €120,428 is a direct cost to my Department with, on average, €38,795 being borne by the five other Departments which have staff seconded to the unit. The unit provides a media information service to Ministers and their Departments. It furnishes news updates and transcripts which ensure that Departments are kept informed in a fast and efficient manner of any relevant news developments. In this way, Departments are able to provide a better service to the public.
The communications unit works an 18 hour day based on a flexible rota of three working shifts. The unit is staffed by six established civil servants, five of whom are seconded from other Departments. The work of the unit means that Departments have greatly reduced their use of external companies and ensure they no longer duplicate work such as transcripts and tapes. It is conservatively estimated that in a full year the communications unit saves Departments approximately in excess of €175,000. That was at the last date we used them, which was about eight years ago.
An 18-hour day would cover most radio stations. Will the Taoiseach provide a breakdown of the €314,402 costs for his communications unit? Will he explain how he described its role some time ago in the following terms: "It reports what the media is saying on various issues, so the Government is not spending enormous amounts of money on putting out its own message." What exactly does that mean? If the persons running the unit are sitting in their offices listening to every broadcast, including what the media are saying about what the Government is or is not doing, why is that information not made available either by e-mail or in the Oireachtas Library? If there is nothing underhand about it, it should be available to everybody so that we will all know what the media are saying. God knows, sometimes we all wish they would not say some of the things they say, but that is neither here nor there.
The total cost of the communications unit for 2004 at €314,402 is made up from staff costs. There are six staff involved and this relates to their total salaries and secondment salaries. There are four executive officers, a staff officer and 2 chief executive officers. The office overheads are also included but most of the costs arise from salaries. I can provide the Deputy with a written note on the breakdown. As I have said many times, the unit deals purely with the national media, including national newspapers — it does not deal with provincial newspapers — and the main national radio stations, including some of those that broadcast in Dublin. The unit gives the headline news. Whenever Departments require detailed transcripts or tapes of what is on the news, the unit supplies them. Previously, they went to outside companies.
In respect of the national broadcaster, the unit works for 18 hours per day. Does that mean people have to listen to all the current affairs programmes from "Morning Ireland" right through to "Playback" in the early hours of the morning? Is somebody listening to all of this? People can download from the Internet RTE programmes that were broadcast some time ago, so one person could do a presentation on what is being said in the media about the way the Government is conducting its business. Perhaps the efficiency of the unit should be examined. If people are currently listening to current affairs programmes all day and then producing a synopsis for Departments of what the media said about Government issues, could the communications unit be made more efficient?
Are the press cuttings and transcripts of interviews presented to members of the Cabinet? Would the two Ministers sitting beside the Taoiseach receive a series of press cuttings stating what is being said about Departments? If that is the case, could this material not be left in the Oireachtas Library so that every Member of the House could reflect on the glory, or otherwise, being showered upon members of the Government and on members of the Opposition?
The communications unit does not go into that detail. It provides a synopsis from the main bulletins and newspapers, without comment. There is no political comment on what I, other Ministers or Opposition spokespersons said. It is just the news of the day on paper. Copies of the issue have been seen many times.
With regard to transcripts and tapes of events, if the information or press office, or any other section of a Department, seeks such information, the unit will provide it rather than use an outside company for it. Deputy Kenny makes a valid point that the unit should examine its own efficiency to see if it can do things in a more efficient way. It is staffed from 6 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. on a three shift basis. The early shift is 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the others are 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. Most of the time a maximum of two people is involved. The staff complement is six, although the unit only had a staff of five for a long period. However, I think it is back to six now.
If a member of the unit's staff is listening to a current affairs radio programme, does he or she wait until the close of business or does he or she ring the programme manager to tell him or her that his or her Minister or Department is being talked about on Channel 4 or whatever? In other words, is the contact with the relevant Minister or Department contemporaneous? Do the unit's staff wait until the close of business or do they report conversations as they take place in the media about Ministers and their Departments?
To the best of my knowledge, it is done a number of times per day. A summary is provided of the newspapers in the morning followed by a summary of radio and television programmes after lunch and in the evening. It is not compact——
The Taoiseach gets a fix several times a day.
In so far as I read it all.
I had occasion recently to come to the Taoiseach's rescue. I will not reopen that now but, as I have been reminded by his backbenchers since, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform asserted that I had done the opposite and had given several interviews over a given weekend saying the opposite. As it happened, I was in Madrid at a meeting of our sister parties. Would the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dea, have said that because the communications unit gave him wrong information or would he have said it knowing it was not true?
Perhaps it was a flash of inspiration.
The Deputy is going outside the remit of the question.
He should table a question to the Minister of State.
The staff of the communications unit are not in at the weekend.
During the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government's period in exile in the far east on European business, was he kept informed by the communications unit about all the things academic experts said about electronic voting? Would he have known that automatically from the communications unit or is he reliant only on his Department to keep him informed?
I can only assume that, because the communications unit does not open at the weekend, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dea, must have had some other source for those comments. Perhaps he was listening to the media, but I cannot be sure.
Or his imagination.
With regard to the other information, an electronic copy is available to more than 100 users throughout all Departments from morning time and if Ministers are abroad, they can get those copies. l have no doubt the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, being the active Minister he is, would have been well aware of what everybody said.
Has it had much of an impact?
I always listen to what the Deputy has to say.
This is strange. I refer to the cost of the communications unit. It is possible to obtain the information it provides from the broadcast and print media digitally quite easily without having to listen to programmes one after the other. Is that reflected in the work practices of the unit? Does it have corresponding implications for cost? It seems the information could be obtained much more easily without staff spending 18 hours monitoring the media.
With regard to newspaper reports, I am sure the unit uses the best communications systems available, although I accept that things can be done faster now than in the past. However, the unit does an entire breakdown of the morning news over four or five sheets and it does the same at lunch time. This is convenient, not just for Ministers but also for Departments. If someone wants details of a radio programme, as Departments regularly do, he or she can get the full text.
Deputy Kenny asked for the salary and shift allowances of my Department. The amount is €86,023. The shift allowances are paid by my Department. The other costs are €50,428 and the salaries of the seconded staff amount to €177,951, bringing the total cost to €314,402. That is the information Deputy Kenny requested.