In accordance with the order of the House, we have two further questions. I return to Deputy Micheál Martin.

There was some surprise on the announcement of the budget yesterday at the allocation of €5 million for the new strategic communications unit. It is not an insignificant sum of money when contrasted with for €3 million for DEIS schools and €2.5 million for the Irish language as well as other needy causes I could mention which required some extra allocation. In reply to a parliamentary question which I tabled some time ago, the Taoiseach said that the purpose of the strategic communications unit was, among other things, to make it easier for people to understand what is happening. The homeless children about whom Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke are acutely aware of their status relative to their peers at school. They know what is happening. Families of children who are waiting for scoliosis operations know what is happening. Children awaiting assessment and their families know what is happening. The Government cannot erase these realities of life with a spanking new strategic communications unit.

I have a number of issues with the unit, including its cost and the potential politicisation of the public service. The Taoiseach stated in reply to me here some time ago that he came up with the idea and appointed the head of the unit, an established civil servant, without any public competition. I was told originally that there would be two staff members and that it would be separate from the Government Information Service as a stand-alone unit within the Department of the Taoiseach. We now learn that as it evolves, it will co-ordinate and run the show across the board in terms of the entire edifice of communications from Departments and State agencies. Most people looking at this from a distance see it for what it is, namely, a propaganda unit designed to sell a political message on behalf of the Government. It is not in any shape or form about objective Government strategic communications.

Can the Taoiseach explain why Mr. Concannon was not appointed through the rules governing special advisers which are used in other cases when an established civil servant is being appointed to a role by a member of Government? Can he also explain why his deputy was not appointed through the rules governing special advisers? Can he indicate how this unit will not be politicised when the blurring of the lines has already occurred at its inception? The appointment of the head was a political act by the Taoiseach. While we understand the Taoiseach's obsession with communications, important issues arise here about the politicisation of our Civil Service which must be avoided at all costs. The manner of the establishment of this unit undermines that principle.

We published the detail of the cost of the unit in the budget because I wanted to be as transparent about this as much as I could be. We put the cost out there. There will be six staff. The total cost, most of it being for information campaigns, will be €5 million in a full year. It will be cost neutral because it is being fully funded from my Department's existing administrative and information budget. In fact, as the Deputy will know from page 164 of the budget book, my Department is one of the few which is having its budget cut next year. The Department's budget is being reduced from €36.7 million to €35.8 million. Therefore, we are able to do this within the existing budget of the Department - actually reducing the budget of the Department. It is, therefore, as I said, cost neutral. Over time, it will actually save money as we will be able to reduce the number of information campaigns and the level of communications activity of other Departments and of the high number of State agencies, which have their own independent communications functions which they may not need at all.

Some of the information campaigns the unit will run will relate to the budget. The Deputy may not believe it, but there are many people who do not know what they are entitled to and what changes are being made in the budget. An obvious example is the increase in family income supplement, of which I have seen very little mention. Low-income working families who are entitled to the family income supplement will see an increase next year of about €10 per week. People need to know that and to apply for it. That is the kind of thing that will be done. In a couple of weeks time, we will see the restoration of treatment benefit. People who pay PRSI will be able to avail of that benefit when attending the dentist, for example. These are the kinds of campaigns which will be run.

On the Deputy's specific question, Mr. Concannon was not appointed by me. I approached him and asked him if he would be available. He was appointed by the Secretary General of the Department. He is not a special adviser and it is not a political appointment. I cannot hire or fire him. If Deputy Martin becomes Taoiseach in a few weeks or months, he will still be there. So it is not a political appointment and he is not a special adviser, which is why the special adviser procedure was not followed. The same applies to the deputy head of the unit, Ms Andrea Pappin, who is an existing staff member in the Department and who handled other communications previously. She worked on the Action Plan for Jobs and the EU Presidency prior to this. She was transferred by the Secretary General because she is a civil servant and not a political appointee.

Is the Taoiseach saying he contacted Mr. Concannon to ask him if he was available for this job and that, miraculously and without the Taoiseach saying it to him, the Secretary General came to the same conclusion and made the appointment? The Taoiseach is being a bit disingenuous. If he approached a senior civil servant, indicated that he was setting up a particular unit and that the person would be a good head of it, and asked if the person was available to take up the job, it is clear to me that the Taoiseach told the Secretary General to make the appointment. Strictly speaking, the Taoiseach is saying that it was actually the Secretary General who made the formal appointment but the reality is that the Taoiseach made the appointment. We need plain speaking and honesty about this to a far greater extent. The Taoiseach appointed Mr. Concannon, not Mr. Fraser, the Secretary General. He was told to appoint him. He was the Taoiseach's chosen person. Mr. Concannon was chosen to sell a political message and it is a message which has the Taoiseach at the centre, together with the Government and the Fine Gael Party, more than others. I have no doubt that this is the way it is going to transpire. Talking about efficiencies in the fullness of time and savings is all nonsense.

I thank Deputy Martin.

This will grow and develop and it is no longer separate from the GIS. Essentially, it is taking over, strategically, the work of the GIS, which is a very dangerous development. The manner in which the Taoiseach appointed Mr. Concannon leaves a great deal to be desired.

The Deputy is way over time.

Originally, everything was about best international practice but best international practice means one holds a competition to select a person for the head of a unit which is totally divorced from the political realm.

This appointment was not divorced from the political realm. The establishment of this unit did not originate from the civil servants; it originated from the Taoiseach. It was a political idea designed to create a political operation and machine for his benefit and for the Government's benefit.

We are way over time.

The Deputy is welcome to believe what he wants to believe and he can spin this any way he likes. He is doing a lot of spinning in respect of this. I discussed it with the Secretary General obviously before I appointed him - or before I asked if he would be available to be appointed. I certainly discussed it with the Secretary General before I approached him and he was formally appointed by the Secretary General. Bear in mind the role Mr. Concannon had prior to this. He is not somebody with whom we in this House are unfamiliar. He is the person who invented and headed up The Gathering and made The Gathering hugely successful.

The Taoiseach appointed him, did he not?

Deputy Martin, please.

Subsequent to that he was involved in the 1916 commemorations, which were again hugely successful. After that, he was approached to head up Creative Ireland. It is exactly the same thing that would have happened with Creative Ireland and the 2016 commemorations.

It is not the same thing.

Third time lucky.

This was a big Government project. It was something that we wanted to do and somebody in-house was asked to do it.

The Taoiseach hand-picked and appointed the person.