Leo splurge on PR stunt is shocking

THE disclosure Leo Varadkar and his team blew €200,000 on a video to highlight the Fine Gael Government’s achievements will disgust the public.

The Taoiseach said the PR exercise cost less than €45,000 but the Irish Mirror can reveal the true bill is over four times that amount.

On top of this, an additional €80,000 was forked out for the Government propaganda to be shown in cinemas around the country.

The total spend on advertising for the Project Ireland 2040 launch came to €1.4million.

For many this will come as further evidence the Government is more concerned about spin than substance.

Its claims that the huge spend on publicity was to make people aware of what was contained in Project Ireland 2040 is nonsense.

The public will rightly ask how Mr Varadkar and his ministers could possibly plan projects far off in the future when they were totally unaware of events which took place on their watch in the very recent past?

The cervical smear scandal has shown ministers are not even aware of what is going on in their own departments.

The €116billion plan, which will supposedly determine the country’s development over the next two decades, is to be welcomed.

Blowing taxpayers’ money in an attempt to make Mr Varadkar and his ministers look good is not.