Election material – Dempsey’s deception will haunt FF

Minister for Education Noel Dempsey’s arguments in defence of the use of the staff of his department to provide briefing packs for Fianna Fáil election candidates are pathetic.

Using civil servants for election purposes is an abuse of power and privilege.

The actual cost of the whole operation is not an issue: rather, it was a waste of the time of the civil servants, who should have been engaged in productive work.

Moreover, it has opened the Government to the kind of allegations being made by opposition spokesmen, and the minister has given them a stick with which to beat him.

The Standards in Public Office Commission has announced that it is investigating the affair. If the Commission finds that rules has been violated, it should initiate a public inquiry.

It is not good enough that ministers should be allowed to get away with misbehaviour, just because such behaviour may have been condoned before new standards were introduced.

The Taoiseach, who made little effort to defend his colleague yesterday, admitted that it was unusual for such information to be sent directly from a Department. It must be made clear that civil servants should not expend any time on activities to help any party, or parties.