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Departmental Advertising Budgets

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 November 2018

Wednesday, 28 November 2018

Ceisteanna (1)

Mary Lou McDonald

Ceist:

1. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the proposed budget for social media advertising in his Department for 2019. [49146/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (30 píosaí cainte)

The cost for any social media advertising undertaken in 2019 will be met from my Department's administrative budget. Costs incurred are expected to be significantly less than the spend on digital advertising in 2018 which is estimated at approximately €450,000.

The expenditure referenced relates to a number of major cross-Government public information campaigns that the Department funded centrally during 2018. These were Healthy Ireland, Global Ireland, Project Ireland 2040 and the self-employed benefits campaign aimed at ensuring self-employed people are aware of the new and existing benefits available to them.

The majority of this expense was incurred prior to July 2018. Public information campaigns in future will be funded mainly by relevant line Departments rather than being funded centrally by my Department.

It is important to communicate across a variety of platforms, including social media, to ensure transparency and clarity for all citizens. The Government Information Service is now required to provide a 24-7 service to media organisations on all topics of public interest, often with short response times. It is also required to generate online content, including written, audio and video material, as well as live broadcast on occasion.

It is undoubtedly important to communicate and to do so on all platforms, as the Taoiseach said. Nobody is disputing that. I read a story in the Daily Mirror - I am sure the Taoiseach saw it as well - which is based on responses to freedom of information requests and which highlights the level of spending on communications and media advertising in the Taoiseach's Department since he took office. That spending amounts to a whopping €2 million.

That is an extraordinary figure in its own right, but all the more so when compared with spending on public relations under the previous Taoiseach, which was just shy of €20,000. We have discussed these matters previously. Despite all of the Taoiseach's big budget communications, I believe that his approach with Deputy Gino Kenny earlier was uncalled for and unworthy of someone in the office of An Taoiseach. Deputy Kenny raised a legitimate issue of public interest and rather than simply answer it, the Taoiseach chose to try to deflect and respond in a way that I cannot fathom.

Will the Taoiseach explain the €2 million figure? Given that one of the reasons his spin unit was scrapped was the inappropriate use of the unit to promote Fine Gael election candidates I was surprised to see an image posted by the official Government website that makes me believe that things have not changed. There is a picture of the Taoiseach and four Ministers. Lo and behold, standing alongside and smiling for the camera is a Fine Gael Senator and election candidate for Mayo. Despite all of the bluster, taxpayer's money is still being spent to promote Fine Gael candidates under the guise of public information. The Taoiseach told us that this would end and it has not, so perhaps he could give an explanation for that also.

Will the Taoiseach outline for the House the number of staff in his Department who cover social media, contributions, advertising, putting up posts, video messaging and so on? Is this done by Government Information Service, GIS, staff or is it a mixture of GIS staff and political staff? Who co-ordinates all of that? Is there a difference between promoting Government campaigns and personal messages from the Taoiseach, or are they treated the same? It is interesting that the Taoiseach's twitter handle is still @campaignforleo, which really is a political slogan. Has the Taoiseach plans to change that with regard to the office of An Taoiseach?

I shall now turn to the issue of the spending. There has been a considerable spend and I would appreciate if the Taoiseach could confirm whether the figure quoted in The Irish Mirror is correct. It is a substantial amount. I also noted another figure, which was the cost to produce the campaign video for Ireland to win a seat on the UN Security Council. It is reported to have cost €100,000. I watched that video. It is a fine video and it is well produced but having been a Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, I realised that the campaign for the UN Security Council is a close-up campaign. I do not say it is hand-to-hand combat but the Taoiseach will be aware that it is about personally engaging with representatives from other countries. Our officials do it and our Ministers do it whenever they are overseas. When I watched the video, it looked like it was intended for a domestic audience and not one that was likely to encourage anybody on the UN Security Council to vote Ireland onto the council. Rather it was a video that made everyone look good, including the Taoiseach, for a domestic audience. I believe there is a serious issue in respect of the emphasis placed on public relations and the proliferation of videos with the ensuing costs. We need better transparency on this. Perhaps the Taoiseach would confirm whether that €100,000 figure quoted in the media is true.

I am happy to reassure the Deputies that the €2 million referred to in that particular article was not spent on promoting me or Fine Gael; it was spent on campaigns such as those I outlined earlier. They were campaigns such as Healthy Ireland, which is all about encouraging people to take those little steps that could improve their physical or mental health such as giving up smoking, exercising more and healthier eating. I do not believe that anyone in this House would think it money badly spent to invest in Healthy Ireland and to put across to the public those important messages regarding their own health. One could give no better health advice than to give up smoking, exercise more and eat healthier.

There was also a campaign to inform the public about Project Ireland 2040, what is in that programme and how it will affect people in their communities and their lives. Another campaign was the public information campaign for the self-employed to let self-employed people know what new benefits are being made available to them by the Government, how their tax burden is being reduced and how the Government is increasingly investing in supporting entrepreneurship. These are all public information campaigns. When I first became Taoiseach, I took the decision to centralise this funding in my Department through the special communications unit so the spending relates to that. This is why it has almost all occurred before July 2014. My intention was to centralise communications, improve communications and reduce the costs thereof. Given the political controversy that was caused, which became such a distraction to the project, that is no longer the case. In future, and indeed currently, these campaigns and information campaigns are funded through the line Department and not through my Department.

I disagree with Deputy McDonald's comments earlier. Anything that exposes somebody who makes false claims about health or particular cures is very much in the public interest. The Deputy and her party do not have a very good record on this with regard to her own conduct and that of some of her party members around the issue of CervicalCheck and cervical screening. Some of the false claims made by the Deputy's party caused increased anxiety for women in Ireland. There were false claims in health and false information was put out. Claims of false cures can cost lives and can damage people in the long term. I do not believe that anyone in this House should be ashamed of exposing those who make false claims around health and particular cures.

I do not have a breakdown of staffing numbers but I can provide those by correspondence. It is the 21st century and people who work in media no longer tend to be broken into social media, broadcast media and print media. Increasingly the platforms are all becoming one. The number of persons dedicated to social media may well be very small, or zero, but people tend to work across platforms these days and not just in one branch of media. My Twitter account is mine. I own it and all the posts are either done by me or by me in conjunction with one of my two political staff - not by civil servants.

I do not believe that Deputy Gino Kenny was trying to promote any false position. He simply asked about medicinal cannabis and the medical access programme. I thought it was very clear. The Taoiseach is being utterly disingenuous on that.

The anxiety endured by the women caught up in the CervicalCheck scandal was generated by people not connected at all with me but connected with the systems of the State. The Taoiseach knows this.

I note that in his reply the Taoiseach did not answer my question on the photograph I referred to, a copy of which I have here. The caption tells us that the "Taoiseach and the Minister Eoghan Murphy" - which is okay - are joined by "Minister Josepha Madigan" - which is grand - and the Ministers of State John Halligan and Kevin Boxer Moran - which is fair enough. They were announcing the fund for urban regeneration and development, but why on earth does the Taoiseach have a party colleague alongside all of his Government colleagues? What is that all about? I do not dispute the necessity to make such an announcement or to publicise it, but I ask the Taoiseach to explain to me why his candidate for Mayo is alongside him in that photo opportunity. This is taxpayers' money. As the Head of the Government, he makes the announcements and he has Government colleagues with him. Why, however, is there a general election candidate? That is what got the Taoiseach into bother the last time around when it was regarded that State money was being used to make announcements on projects on the taxpayers' dollar, and that it was being used, misused and abused to promote not only a party political agenda but also an agenda very much connected with the electoral prospects of his party colleagues.

That is the core point. I asked about the costs of the video for the UN Security Council campaign. Perhaps the Taoiseach would comment on the cost and necessity of that. The issue is to try to differentiate between Government spend, party spend and party promotion. Unfortunately, many of the campaigns the Taoiseach has spoken of - even Creative Ireland and others like it - have not been demarcated rigidly enough with regard to public service announcements and party political campaigning. Photographs will emerge in campaigns, for example about Creative Ireland, when Ministers have to turn up when they are to discuss literature, arts or whatever.

There will always be a bit of it, but it is done to excess. On the two funds that were announced recently for urban and rural Ireland, while no-one has any issue with funding projects, they risk the application of the appellation "political slush fund" if they turn out to be juxtaposed or used as part of a party political campaign as well as promoting candidates and so on around the place. The original problem with the strategic communications unit was the utilisation of taxpayers' money to promote party campaigns. That is the issue that needs to be guarded against. I would appreciate a comment on the cost of the Security Council video.

To be very honest with Deputy McDonald, I do not know who took that photograph and I do not know if any public money was expended by the taking of the photograph. It is possible that Senator Mulherin got somebody to take the photograph for her on her phone, in which case no public money was-----

It is on an official website. It is on a Government website.

I will check into that. I will have that taken down. I do not know which website it is on but I will certainly check into it. We need to be realistic about this. Deputies and Senators who are not Ministers, including those from the Opposition, turn up at Government announcements-----

-----as do candidates. I am not sure.

It is on merrionstreet.ie.

It might be overkill for me to issue an instruction that anybody who is not a Minister, including Opposition Deputies, be airbrushed out of any photographs that appear on a Government website. In fairness, that is not what the Deputy is suggesting-----

-----but if we were to take what she is claiming to its natural extension, what she would want us to do would be to airbrush out from any photograph on merrionstreet.ie or any Government website pictures of people who are not Ministers, including of herself or her colleagues. I just think that would be overkill. I appreciate that she needs to find something to raise and I will certainly look into that.

Deputy Micheál Martin again alleged that public money was used to promote Fine Gael candidates last year prior to the controversy in respect of the strategic communications unit. I would like again to put on the record that the allegation is false. The editors of the local newspapers concerned against whom, let us not forget, this allegation is being made confirmed they were not put under any pressure whatsoever by anyone to include such photographs.

What about everyone else?

They chose them by their own volition so that is a false allegation-----

It is not a false allegation. Did the Taoiseach and the Government not pay for it?

-----and it should not be repeated.

The taxpayer paid for those advertorials. How is it false?

Both editors have confirmed that they chose the photographs and were not told or asked to pick any particular photographs.

That is twisting the point.

That is an extraordinary distortion and twisting of the facts.

I know, but the Taoiseach is being provocative.

The rules of the House are the rules of the House.

On the video for the UN Security Council campaign, I understand it was funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade so the Deputy would need to raise that with the Tánaiste.

I have raised it with the Taoiseach.

I do not know the answer. The Deputy can raise it with the Tánaiste. He will be here tomorrow.

Of course the Taoiseach has the answer, come on. That is outrageous.

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