Who is behind the Taoiseach’s tweets?

Advisers admit, after weeks of stalling, that Leo doesn’t write all his own posts

WHETHER Leo Varadkar writes all of his own tweets or not seems to be a mystery akin to the Third Secret of Fatima.

Earlier this week, our Taoiseach unveiled his new Strategic Communications Unit to provide more awareness to the public about the workings of Government – and not simply spin as critics have suggested.

‘Communication to our citizens is an essential public service. The public has a right to know what their government is doing on their behalf, and why. That is why this unit is being set up within the civil service structures,’ Mr Varadkar said.

But when asked who, or what, processes are involved in the Taoiseach’s social media use, the commitment to communication of his Department press office and advisers seemed less assured.

The Irish Mail on Sunday finally confirmed – after more than two weeks of enquiries to three press officers, the Government Press Secretary and the Taoiseach’s special adviser – that while the Taoiseach is the ‘arbiter’ of all activity on his social media platforms he is not the author of all posts, and that an undisclosed number of people have access to his social media accounts.

On August 24, the MoS emailed queries relating to the Taoiseach’s social media use to the press office at the Department of the Taoiseach. This was followed up by a phone call the same day and again on the subsequent two days. However, no response was forthcoming.

The following week, despite a series of follow-up calls to the press office no response was forthcoming. The MoS then tweeted the Taoiseach, but even that didn’t work.

On Thursday of this week, 14 days after our initial query, the Department’s press office finally replied, but decided not to answer any of the questions asked, instead telling the MoS: ‘The Taoiseach does not have a dedicated personal social media team.

‘He oversees all his tweets and manages his own social media channels with his political communications staff, all of whom have a wide range of other duties.

‘Social media is an important way to communicate directly with members of the public and keep them up to date with the work and activities of the Taoiseach and the Government…’

Not satisfied with the response, the MoS decided to contact the Government Press Secretary, Fergal Purcell. Initially Mr Purcell, who earns a salary of at least €115,431, said: ‘The Taoiseach is author of almost every single tweet that goes out.’

However, later in the conversation Mr Purcell backtracked and said: ‘There is no mystery in the operation of the Taoiseach’s Twitter account. He is the author and driver of his media strategy and engagement and that’s on the record,’ he said.

Mr Purcell declined to answer questions about the mechanics of the Taoiseach’s social media operation, such as whether tweets are pre-scheduled to go out in advance of events or to elaborate on the mechanics of the operation.

‘Yeah, we’re not going to add to the answer you’ve been given, ok? So we’ll just leave it at that. No, I’m not going to add to the answer you’ve been given so why don’t we leave it at that?’

When asked why he would not provide further details, Mr Purcell replied ‘because that’s the answer that has been forwarded to you and we’re not adding to it, ok? Thank you very much, we’ve nothing to add to it now so there’s no point in pursuing the issue any further.’

The MoS then contacted the Taoiseach’s special adviser, Nick Miller, whose annual salary when a ministerial adviser was €87,258. He declined to comment about the Taoiseach’s social media use.

Undeterred, the MoS continued to ask those with direct knowledge of the situation and eventually a source confirmed that several people have access to the Taoiseach’s social media accounts but that he oversees the output.

The Taoiseach also monitors his own channels and does not receive a daily briefing on interactions across his social media platforms, the source confirmed.

Now that wasn’t so hard.