€1.2m ‘spin’ spend

Taoiseach’s department was responsible for €850,000 of Project Ireland 2040 PR

THE Government has spent €1.26m promoting the National Development Plan and Project Ireland 2040 since February last year, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.

The Taoiseach’s office was responsible for nearly €850,000 of that spend, splashing money on promotion and advertising for projects many critics say are likely to be severely curtailed.

The money went on advertising such as billboard and TV campaigns, while promotional videos posted on social media often prominently feature the faces of the Taoiseach and his ministers.

Figures released in response to a Dáil question show that Leo Varadkar’s office spent more than €650,000 on ads for Project Ireland 2040 and almost €100,000 on media launches for both the NDP 2017–27 and Project Ireland 2040.

Another €100,000 was spent on a cinema campaign for the long-term infrastructure projects that are set to cost €116bn in the next 20 years.

This is in addition to a previous €500,000 spent on advertising the plans from the beginning of 2017 to March 2018.

It comes 18 months after the Taoiseach’s Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) was disbanded after an outcry about public money being spent to place ‘advertorials’ in newspapers that looked like the publications’ own journalism.

The Taoiseach’s office was responsible for €850,000 of the spend over the period. His department told the Irish Mail On Sunday that it has not directly spent money promoting Project Ireland 2040 since July 2018, when the SCU was disbanded.

However, the Taoiseach’s department did meet €850,000 in costs of spending by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) of a ‘wide-ranging, multimedia public awareness campaign’ for Project Ireland 2040.

The DPER confirmed this spend by the Department of the Taoiseach to the MoS.

This was on top of €93,000 spent by the DPER ‘on public information measures including the launch of the first annual report’, which took place in the Glucksman Library in University of Limerick.

A further €317,000 was spent across several departments on promotion and PR for various projects.

Critics say that although the SCU is gone, the ‘spending on spin’ still continues and the Government ‘thinks it can still use State and taxpayers’ money to promote his own political agenda’.

Thomas Byrne of Fianna Fáil, which tabled the questions, says the expenditure was ‘a shameful waste’ of public money. ‘The SCU is gone but this proves that its work still continues. Let’s be clear, the vast bulk of this money has come from the Taoiseach’s office.

‘Half the projects in the NDP probably won’t even happen now because of the overrun on the National Children’s Hospital.’

Mr Varadkar previously defended spending on the project saying it was ‘right that the Government would want to explain to the public what we’re doing and how money is being spent on their behalf’.

However, the SCU, led by John Concannon, was wound up in July 2018 as a result of the fallout from the advertising campaign around the NDP and Project Ireland.

A spokesman for the Taoiseach’s office said: ‘The Project Ireland 2040 information programme… run from this Department concluded in July 2018.’

A DPER spokesman said: ‘Since taking responsibility for communications for Project Ireland 2040, €92,954.26 has been spent by [the DPER] on public information measures including the launch of the first annual report.’

Almost ‘€93k spent on information measures’