TDs take a shot at Bertie’s flash snaps

BERTIE Ahern has landed himself in a spot of bother for paying over €30,000 of taxpayers’ money to photographers to take flattering photos of him on various world trips.

Querying the payment, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny suggested Mr Ahern was already well enough known around the country so the expenditure could be in line for a cutback.

But his erstwhile FG colleague Denis Naughten wanted further information on the payout.

“Does that figure include airbrushing services?” he said.

Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin noted the Taoiseach’s photo fund had risen significantly last year.

“Was that due to the Taoiseach having become more photogenic or was it due to the fact that there was a general election?”

Again, Mr Naughten appeared to be obsessed with the Taoiseach’s appearance. “It must have been the Oil of Ulay,” he quipped.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the Government spent more than €273,471 last year on the Taoiseach’s Communications Unit.

The unit, also known as Bertie’s Big Brother, operates in the dark corridors of Government Buildings for 18 hours a day, monitoring the media by scrutinising every word said on radio and printed in newspapers about the coalition.

Beavering away from 7am over three shifts, the six dedicated civil servants of the Taoiseach’s Communications Unit, read the national newspapers, listen to the radio news bulletins and talk shows and watch the TV news bulletins and then summarise the points raised for Ministers and their staff.

Defending the expenditure, the Taoiseach said the department provided an important service, keeping the Government up to date on developments. He said the unit actually saved €175,000 as departments previously hired outside professional companies to do the work. Big Brother certainly isn’t part of his giant spin machine, he insisted.

“If anything they are giving the media spin to the Government,” Mr Ahern said.

Unconvinced by this apparently harmless activity, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said he failed to understand the point of the exercise and Mr Ahern had more spindoctors than the West Wing and Tony Blair. “The purpose of the unit is to kill off legitimate criticism of the Government and to target people in the media,” he said.

Pointing out that during the Cold War the CIA had listening posts throughout the Soviet Union, Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins wanted to know was the Communications Unit the Taoiseach’s personal listening post as far as the Irish media goes.

“Is the Communications Unit different from the Spindoctoring and Propaganda unit?” he said.

So is this article spinning a spin on the spin regarding the spin on the spin?

Or is it monitoring the monitoring by the monitors of the monitors monitoring the monitoring?

Who’s watching who again?