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SINCE TAKING UP the office of Taoiseach in June, one of Leo Varadkar’s priorities has been the creation of a strategic communications unit, the establishment of which was confirmed earlier this month.
At the time, government press secretary Feargal Purcell described the move as ‘best practice’, adding: “any government worth its salt has done this.”
Last week, meanwhile, it was revealed that the government is to spend €160,000 reviewing how the general public understands its work.
This morning, the Sunday Times quotes Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin describing that review as reflecting “the clear prioritisation of communications above everything else”.
But do you agree? Is the government prioritising communications where it shouldn’t, or is the move a necessary facet of modern politics?
We’re asking: Are you in favour of the government’s strategic communications unit?
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AKA a formalised propaganda/spin department. Bit of a joke when there are plenty of other vital things that they say we can’t afford to fund.
@The Guru: The media don’t tell us the truth,so we set up another one .Leo wants to give his mates jobs at our expense.Give us an election.
@The Guru: Our supreme leader Leo will make glorious our nation with many departments telling the compliant great people how great they have it whilst making trips all over the world promoting himself and novelty socks.
@The Guru: We should be used to having well paid liars to lie on behalf of politicians but what happens all the money they have been already spending on lies, why have to add another € 160,000 which could be used for operations or whatever is really needed or spend it and more telling The EU to stop Billions that we were robbed off to compensate human traffickers in Libya to retrain as a job that does require ripping people off. € 6,000 a head for estimated 5,000 human traffickers to be taught to do other jobs comes to € 30 Million money raised by charging us taxes to pay off criminals in Libya.
@The Guru: Can you imagine what’s going to happen to the comments section here? The new unit will be out in force to flood the journal with fake accounts praising FG and demonising everyone else. It’s bad enough at the moment (not only FG), but it will reach the point where the journal will become a forum solely for the dissemination of political propaganda and not debate among the general population. The voice of the people will be drowned out
@Anne Marie Devlin: “The new unit will be out in force to flood the journal with fake accounts praising FG and demonising everyone else.”
‘Will’ be?
From 2013, Fine Gaels fraperoom and its 30 volunteers…..
@Pat Troy: judging by the polls I’m not sure an election would solve the problem. If the polls are to be believed (I know, I know) it could make it worse.
@Jane: yes ,what would happen if he had an overall majority.
@David Huston: @David Huston…you’re comment has put a smile on my face today! Well done!!!
@David Huston: North Korea have their very own little Rocket Man..Ireland has Sock Man……..
@The Guru: or a commuinications department.
Telling the truth is free, only when you need to spin it, mislead or misdirect do you need these tactics. He wasted enough to fund an employment scheme for a year in his bid to secure his place as Taoiseach, and now is wasting more money to manufacture his image, while people die in our streets. Just as well he made it clear he wasn’t everyone’s Taoiseach, he certainly isn’t mine
@Noirin Kavanagh: Exactly. A governmwnt operating in the interests of the majority would speak for itself without requiring a taxpayer funded propaganda division.
@The Risen: “Why doesn’t Enda Kenny talk to the electorate?”.
Six months later “Why is Leo Varadkar spending money to talk to the electorate?”.
Blah blah fake outrage etc.
@Brinster: The Department of the Taoiseach already has a fully staffed and funded press office to ‘talk to the electorate’. This is a propaganda and misdirection unit
@Noirin Kavanagh: It used to be said that talk was cheap but even that somehow manages to be massively expensive in Modern Ireland with the money people are willing to fork out for PR.
@Brinster: Why do you need to pay people, to tell you facts or alternative facts and the truth costs nothing!
@Brinster: not fake outrange you FG Muppet, we dont like spin…
All Spin and no substance!
Sums up this current Administration really!
A room full of highly paid sock puppets, trying desperately to convince us that the Administration are doing a terrific job, while our 200 billion debts grow ever larger!
Checkout Ireland’s debt clock!
Housing
Healthcare
Education
Apple Taxes
Irish Water
Then the mantra of the desperate, TINA!
“There Is No Alternative!
I despair!
Roll on #GE2017
@Jarlath Murphy: I almost forgot about that huge ff/Noonan national debt. How the fock are they going to spin out of that?
Not building houses, not rolling out broadband, not building any infrastructure, not reducing mortgage rates to Eurozone norms.
The real communication is that nothing is going to change but we will flood the media with nonsense about equal this and equal that.
@tom McCormack: it’s almost as if the country is being deliberately ran into the ground.
@tom McCormack: “not rolling out broadband”…
500 homes connected per day. We’ll be the first country in the world to hit 90% connectivity. But please continue to lie.
@Brinster: Broadband is improving. my result from rural Leitrim right now http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6651313844
@Leitrim303: that’s great. I live in D3 my internet is regularly down just like the last couple of days and like the next couple of days. When it’s up it rockets along at a mighty 6mbps. Go figure cause I can’t neither can eir apparently.
What do we want? Unclear communications?
@Ruth Frost: Yes! We want clear communication on the anniversary of Diana and communication as clear as bottled shite on major issues affecting citizens of this state. We also really need more pictures of socks and longer promotional videos from dear Leo. Go team!! Let’s communicate drivel with the dirty unwashed sheeple.
@Ruth Frost: I can’t speak for what “we” want but I know what I want. Honesty no bullhit or spin.
I think the gov yet again showed their true colours on Fri night last when the gov obviously instructed the new garda commissioner to kill off the breath tests controversary by saying they were all to blame for it, enabling politicians and garda management to get away scott free from any individual responsibility or accountability on the issue. Every other day then it’s just Leo saying things that they think people want to hear, with no intention of doing anything they say. Its like FF were the populist party a year or two ago, saying everything, doing nothing. FG have brought this to a new level.
It actuallys seem a lot easier and a lot more straightforward if they just did their jobs properly but they are just so crooked and incompetent that it makes the easy and right way inpossible.
Anything enacted by the mafia sorry the “State” is always bad for the people.
Nothing good will come of this for the Joe on the street.
@Cram Wood: Oooooooooooh edgy!!!
Absolutely not. Our own taxes are being used to ram soundbites like ‘Republic of opportunity’ down our necks while the numbers of homeless children grows by the day.
I voted yes so that they wouldn’t come and kick down my door and pull me into one of their special centres they have for “realignment” therapy … If they think you’re conforming it’s okay.
The Journal is in on it people, they have a deep relationship with the government. There is no true news media.
#cannabiscuresgovernment
Got my hopes up for a minute – thought it might be a unit to speed up the rollout of broadband. Perish the thought.
Is this a sponsored poll payed for by the new communications department ?
I for one, fully support and endorse our thought police and new leaders in the
Special
Communications
Unit
Management
And wish them every success!
Does this mean an election is imminent?
Roll on #GE2017
It’s an entity solely for party political benefit with the taxpayer footing the bill. A propaganda department, plain and simple, warping what little truth and transparency we have at the moment even further at our own expense. It’s an absolute disgrace and should be halted as a misappropriation of public money. Varadkar’s getting taxpayers to cover his election expenses
Head of the Strategic Spin Unit has been with Leo for a very long time right back to the days when his role was to ensure that the minister never had to deal with awkward questions from the opposition in the Dail. On one occasion a Failte Ireland employee told me that their job was simple – never allow anything to happen that would allow anyone to embarrass Leo as a minister. This was from someone in the ICT group so obviously they should be thinking about matters like Leo’s reputation instead of efficient use of tax payers money promoting tourism online or with apps.
Tried to find a copy of an interview with Dr Spin from about 8 or 9 years ago but have failed. It was down the country, he rolled up in designer suit and sports car and when asked if that was appropriate in these times of enforced austerity, he pointed out that (paraphrasing here) people of power must exude power in how they dress and how they appear. Its expected. This was at the time when he lived in Galway and worked mostly in Dublin and had his expense covered, at the expense of the tax payer, that is. Or at least that is what the ICT empoyee told me. I guess these guys can put whatever they want on the internet, and remove most anything they want too.
Says a lot that when the country isn’t functioning properly in anything be it Health, Housing or Justice – What do we get from Leo? A spin machine.
Why do the Government need a propaganda department when they already have Independent Newspapers and Newstalk?
More cushy, massively paid jobs for the boys and girls.
Why not ? North Korea has one.
More jobs for the friends… Government Comms SHOULD be very easy! You are elected by the people to represent the people so just tell the people how it is accordingly…Simples!
@Nigel O’Neill: The Department of the Taoiseach already has a fully staffed and funded press office. This new unit is purely for spin and misdirection. Prime example, Varadkar meeting Justin Trudeau. Ceta was the main story, but the media were discussing Leos socks.
Maybe Leo should take a leaf from Trump’s book….
Trump has one of these Strategic Communications Units…….and he’s the only person working in it.
and you can be sure that the agenda will be to promote Leo to the EU and world more than to the citizens as he builds his profile to get an international role after his time as leader of Ireland ends. It is not like he will be willing to work as the leader of the opposition and his cohorts will need a source of work once he is no longer in office.
The story above says the unit is considered “best practice.” Uh-oh. Anytime I see that phrase, my alarm bells go off.
Now let me see a party that came from the ashes of a fashist party, that didn’t listen to the people during the water protest marches. That want to start up a spin department
At least the Blueshirt trolls have been smoked out-510 on The Journo so far.
Great poll idea. It’ll be fascinating to see how people vote on this one.
The poll should ask , are you in favour of being spoon fed snipits of information by the government spin doctors which you will be paying for through taxes .
Dept of Propaganda and Spin. Waste of money because we’re not as gullible as politicians like to think we are.
Ridiculous – they already have Rte 1, radio 1, the independent and tv3 now since VB departure….
This waste of money is designed to present this crap government in a favourable light. To cover up the mess they are making day after day and make it look like they are doing “wonderful”.
Any government that uses tax payer money to fund a communications “propaganda” department should be treated with the contempt they deserve. Who in their right mind would vote for these crooks. It’s a disgusting waste of money given the current crisis in health and housing but interestingly, 28% of people who voted in this poll are in favour, I wonder which party they support?
@Super Ted: In fairness to Leo, Kim Jung Un has a communications department and he is considered to be a great leader by the people of North Korea. In fact, he is so revered that you will not find 1 person living in North Korea who has a bad word to say about him. Leo also wants to be a great leader just like Kim so you have to admire his ambition and determination to achieve that goal by whatever means are available to him.
I never thought i would miss Enda
If Michael Martin is against it, I’m for it
JOBS FOR THE BOYS
At the same time the Oireachtas website has removed the dail debates from it’s site. So we are to be subjected to Leo’s propaganda without recourse to the proof of previous pronouncements.
Strategic communication is striaght out of the how to successfully fool the people hand book.
Its very North Korea.
Id much prefer straight talking poltiticians.
Politics is a game of communication, if you can get your message out in a better way than your opponent s you will get more votes.The election of Trump is a classic example , he was really sucessful on communicating a simple message and it got him elected against the odds.Leo gets that and that’s why he is gaining support.If you don’t like it well you are not accepting the realities of politics and there is plenty of room for you on the moral high ground with all of the Tds who will never be in government
@Robert Woodward: really insightful comment! Reality….
We do not need one as Dennis will tell them and us what to do on this front .
Is this the same sort of thing Himmler was head of and then they called it propaganda?
Otherwise, distraction techniques
There are many types of rats the political rat and the journalist rat .usually the political rat feeds tidbits to the journalist rat to run with ,However sometimes the journalist rat can turn on the political one very rarely do . ,
They need to manage media because of the skilled way journalists corrupt the truth. You can’t believe all that you read in the papers…. I’d believe a politician sooner than a journalist. Sorry Journal! No offence !
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