Labour slams Government website as ‘propaganda’

A GOVERNMENT website aimed at promoting the work of the Coalition has been described as “propaganda” by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore.

The Government established MerrionStreet.ie as a “one-stop shop” for information on administration activity, policies and announcements.

But in the Dáil yesterday, both Mr Gilmore and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny questioned the need for the website.

They said the Government already had an array of websites and shouldn’t have needed to spend tens of thousands of euro on a new one. They also criticised the fact that Mr Cowen failed to give interviews to the media following a recent high-level visit by a Chinese governmental delegation.

Instead, Mr Cowen gave his sole interview about the visit to a Government press officer, who then posted it to MerrionStreet.ie.

Mr Kenny asked if Mr Cowen’s intention had been “to avoid the media” by doing the interview with his own staff. And Mr Gilmore questioned whether Mr Cowen intended to do more interviews with his own press officers “as opposed to doing direct interviews with the public media”.

In response, Mr Cowen said he did media interviews “all the time” and defended both the website and manner in which it was being used.

“If I get the opportunity to use this internet medium to bring to the public attention what it is we’re doing and what’s happening in the course of my job or what the Government are doing, I don’t see a problem with it,” Mr Cowen said.

“One of the great critiques of the Opposition is a dearth of information. The more information you get out there, then, there’s a problem with that as well.”

But Mr Gilmore said there was a distinction between information and propaganda and claimed MerrionStreet.ie was the latter.

“It’s done in a form of propaganda – it’s to communicate good news from the Government.”

Under questioning, Mr Cowen said the cost of developing and launching the site had come to €34,335.

In total, the Government Information Service (GIS) will cost €1.3m this year, which Mr Cowen said represented a 12% reduction on last year’s cost.