I note the Taoiseach's comments to the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party about the recent election results which he described as devastating. In recent weeks, the Standards in Public Office Commission reprimanded two Ministers for not abiding by the code of conduct for officeholders. In particular, the Ministers in question did not observe the code that stipulates that official facilities should be used only for official purposes.

On a number of occasions during the past 15 to 18 months, I have raised the issue of the communications unit in his Department with the Taoiseach. The unit employs six staff and costs approximately €300,000 to run. The Taoiseach has consistently portrayed this unit as being non-political and has stated that it merely collects information in a factual manner and provides, without comment, a synopsis of the main news bulletins and major newspaper headlines. He stated, "There is no political comment on what I, other Ministers or Opposition spokespersons said."

How does this fit with the description of the functions of the media monitoring staff, annexed to a Department circular seeking staff for a post in the unit, which states that the principle function of the unit is to act as an early warning system to Government about critical and negative media coverage? The official circular states that the unit will be responsible for ensuring that relevant Departments are in a position to respond quickly to such negative media coverage. It further states that staff will need to maintain a constant watching brief on political issues.

There is clearly a conflict between what the Taoiseach has been telling the House and what the circular to staff actually says. This leads one to believe that this is another case of €300,000 being spent for political purposes. Will the Taoiseach agree to an independent assessment of the work of the communications unit, either by the Standards in Public Office Commission or the Comptroller and Auditor General?

I would have no problem if the Standards in Public Office Commission wanted to investigate the activities of the media monitoring unit. If it has nothing else to do, I would be delighted to facilitate it in this regard. If the Comptroller and Auditor General has nothing better to do, he can also investigate the unit.

The Taoiseach has stated that this unit does no political work at all. However, the circular to which I refer and which is publicly available states that in many ways the unit will be modelled on the British Labour Party's quick response unit based in Millbank, London. Is the Taoiseach confirming that he has no objection to an independent assessment of this unit and its work, which is clearly political? There is quite a difference between what the Taoiseach has been telling the House for the past 18 months and what is contained in the official circular in which staff are requested for what are clearly political positions.

I have no difficulty with the Deputy's suggestion. As far as I am concerned, he can carry out the independent inquiry himself. The staff of the unit are civil servants and they play no political role. They carry out assessments of media reports in the morning and throughout the day. As I have said on the record of the House, they go to Ministers, Ministers of State and departmental officials. They also make transcripts of media interviews requested by Departments, which up to then were done by commercial organisations, thus saving a considerable amount of money. They do not make any political assessments and they are not involved in any participation or scripting of advice on how to respond to a headline or other media issue. They do not participate in any of that. As far as them being in the same business as Millbank, an operation with which I am reasonably familiar, they would not do 0.001% of what Millbank does.

The Taoiseach is getting bad value for money.

It is a different job.