Cost of monitoring media set to reach €1m

THE Government will have spent more than €1 million monitoring the media by the end of the year.

Its communications unit, which provides updates on what the media is covering to ministers and their departments, will cost almost €320,000 to run in 2005.

That will bring its total operating costs since 2002 to €1,085,300, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil yesterday.