THE TAOISEACH HAS said he has learned “many lessons” since he established his Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) last year.
This week, Leo Varadkar announced that his so-called “spin unit” (as it has been dubbed by those in opposition) is to be wound down by July.
Appearing before the Oireachtas Finance Committee this morning, the Taoiseach was grilled about the unit’s controversial Ireland 2040 plan, the body’s expenditure, and the use of his personal email for official government business.
Varadkar told committee members today that his revised 2018 budget estimates for his department will see a reduction of €2.25 million following the shut down of the SCU.
He said around €1.33 million of the SCU budget has already been spent, with another €900,000 committed to in contracts.
The contracts will now go to “not so politically contentious” campaigns, he said.
Ireland 2040
The unit came in for strong criticism in the last couple of months as a result of the fallout from a government advertising campaign around the Ireland 2040 National Planning Framework.
Questions were raised about how advertorials in newspapers were presented during the rollout of the plan.
The SCU headed up a sweeping strategy to promote the plan across traditional and online media.
The scandal resulted in opposition politicians calling for the unit to be disbanded. The final nail in the coffin for the SCU came last week when the government lost a vote in the Dáil calling for the unit to be shut down.
Today, Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson Michael McGrath asked the Taoiseach: “What do you think are the lessons you have learned from the SCU?”
The Taoiseach replied:
One particular lesson that might be learned is that in politics and when it comes to reform of departments, any time you try to do anything new or different there is inevitably going to be controversy.
Varadkar said that one of the lessons learned from the experience is that when government is attempting to reform government communications there will always be “conspiracy theories and political paranoia”.
‘In hindsight’
He said the SCU did not cross the line into politics, but admitted that it should in hindsight have had a final sign-off on advertising content in newspapers.
Varadkar said he was also concerned that some civil servants came “under attack” during the controversy.
He said civil servants were being accused of being biased towards one political party. Politicians can expect media scrutiny, he said, but added that civil servants should not have to go home to their kids and face questions about whether “mummy or daddy did something wrong or not”.
The Taoiseach was also asked about the use of his personal email account for government business. A Freedom of Information Act release showed that Varadkar had discussed some issues surrounding his unit through his private email.
Last October, the Taoiseach signed off on a new private email policy, which Varadkar said he adheres to.
Using his personal email
He said there are three scenarios in which he uses his personal email address:
1) when the system is down
2) when the battery on his phone dies (which he said happens a lot)
3) when someone emails his private email address about an issue and he replies
He said the department’s policy does not forbid the use of personal email addresses for business, but states that if it is used, it must go on the public record, which is why it was turned over for this Freedom of Information request, he said.
SCU review
The Taoiseach and the Secretary General of the Department of An Taoiseach, Michael Fraser, were also questioned about one email from the Mediaforce, the third-party company involved in the promotion of the Ireland 2040 plan.
The report carried out by Fraser investigated the directions Mediaforce gave to newspaper titles about the coverage of the Ireland 2040 plan.
The report states that the author of the email contacted a number of editors separately.
It states:
In that context, a copy of the direction received by one of the editors via their advertising department was provided to the Department. This varies from the version provided by Mediaforce… Notably, this version of the email contains the following line:“This will clearly illustrate to readers that this is a Govt initiative and negate the need to have ADVERTORIAL on the page etc.”
Mediaforce were advised of the discrepancy on 23/3 and asked for their comments. A response has not been received at the time of writing.
When asked specifically in committee today about whether this issue had been clarified, Fraser said Mediaforce had not responded by the time he had to deliver the report to the Taoiseach.
He said clarification was provided late yesterday, but he has yet to reflect on the details and has yet to brief the Taoiseach on the matter. He said the clarification would be released into the public domain and published.
The Taoiseach said he could not answer questions on behalf of Mediaforce.
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