Spin unit may unravel Leo, warns ex-PR king
New €5m SCU will inf lict ‘more pain than gain’, says Duignan
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has received a Christmas warning from the ghost of spin doctors past, that placing too much emphasis on media manipulation will not work.
Seán Duignan, the former government press secretary for Albert Reynolds, has told Leo Varadkar that his perceived attempt to spin his message via a sophisticated new Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) ‘will inflict more pain than gain’.
In a rare compliment from a spin doctor to his media foes, Mr Duignan, a former RTÉ News anchor, told the Taoiseach: ‘There is no point trying to spin the media; journalists are simply too clever.’
Mr Duignan was Albert Reynolds’s government press officer during a dramatic period in Irish politics. The first-ever Fianna FáilLabour coalition secured the IRA ceasefire, the Downing Street Agreement, a record €7bn transfer of EU structural funds and drove the economic growth which created the Celtic Tiger.
However, the doyen of spin conceded that the administration was ‘haunted’ by its equivalent of the SCU – the Labour-driven appointment of programme managers.
Although the innovation improved how that government did its business, the author of the bestseller One Spin On The Merry-go-round recalled: ‘Labour and in particular Fianna Fáil – though we weren’t responsible for it – were haunted by it.’ Mr Duignan also warned Mr Varadkar that in his experience: ‘The smarter these communications units are – or think they are – the worse it works. Journalists, particularly modern ones, are just too good at ferreting out secrets. Spin just irritates them.’
Mr Duignan, who was famously very modest about his own not-inconsiderable talents, recalled one occasion where, in an attempt to dismiss the role of media management, he told Reynolds: ‘If I took to the bed for two months, it would not make a bit of difference.’
The SCU continues to ‘haunt’ the Taoiseach as unease accelerates at the highest level of the civil service over the increasing ‘intrusiveness’ of the unit.
That concern is centred on a development whereby advertising for new government initiatives is ascribed to the ‘Government of Ireland’, rather than to relevant departments. Senior sources noted: ‘It has a bit of an Orwellian feel to it, that the Taoiseach is some sort of Big Brother, who needs to know and be involved in everything.’
The change was originally detected by Fianna Fáil’s Marc MacSharry, who said: ‘The new €5m government spin unit has begun a co-ordinated campaign to claim ownership of positive departmental initiatives.’
Mr MacSharry told the Irish Mail on Sunday that he was now ‘seriously concerned that Leo’s “Trump gene” is on the loose, his desire to be front, centre and middle of everything is out of control’.
‘I have serious concerns that this strategy is nothing more than a cheap abuse of taxpayers’ money to create the perception of political ownership of people’s entitlements.’
Significantly, those concerns are shared by senior government mandarins, one of whom warned: ‘There is a lot of the Big Brother surrounding this. Leo knows everything, he is responsible for everything, including all good things.’
Another senior government figure warned: ‘The Sir Humphreys are not happy.’
This, he added, ‘leaves the Taoiseach very vulnerable to the claim that he has a bad case of the God complex – that, like the Haughey era, he is the go-to man for anything to be done’.
In a reference to how Mr Haughey’s renovated Government Buildings was nicknamed the ‘Chas Mahal’, the source added: ‘He (Leo) will be redesigning it to create a Chas Leo next.’
‘Leo’s Trump gene may be on the loose’