I propose to take Questions Nos. 269 and 270 together.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, my Department has neither allocated nor spent any funding on a Covid-19 communications strategy from its own Votes, which are Vote 11 (Department of Public Expenditure and Reform), Vote 39 (Office of Government Procurement) and Vote 43 (Office of the Government Chief Information Officer).
The Deputy may wish to note that my Department, through its Civil Service HR Division, communicates regularly to civil and public servants on Covid-19 matters pertaining to them through the normal channels without engaging external communications assistance.