State scraps department’s PR role as Leech term ends

MONICA LEECH’S term as PR consultant to the Department of the Environment ends today and the position is then being scrapped.

Although there is still a possibility of a second investigation into the appointment by Transport Minister Martin Cullen of his political associate as an adviser, Ms Leech will cease to be an employee of the State today.

The Waterford-based PR consultant’s contract with the Department of the Environment was worth €800 per day plus VAT, but the final cost will not be known until Ms Leech sends in her final invoice for work done.

She has been employed on an almost continual basis by Government departments since November 2001 and when expenses and VAT are included, the final bill for Ms Leech’s services to the Environment Department and the Office of Public Works is expected to come close to the €400,000 mark.

Last night, a spokesman for the department said Ms Leech’s contract is not being renewed and the position is not being readvertised or put out to tender again.

Most of the large publicity projects Ms Leech was working on, including the Race Against Waste, the National Spatial Strategy and electronic voting, are finished, the spokesman said.

“Nobody in the department has brought it to the minister’s attention that we need this service in the department at the moment,” he said.

Also yesterday, the Department of the Environment said the controversial trip to the Malaysian tropical island of Langkawi by former Environment

Minister Mr Cullen and his entourage cost the taxpayer almost €3,000.

Mr Cullen, Ms Leech, press officer Dan Pender and a private secretary spent three days at the luxury Andaman Hotel last February en route to a UN environment conference in Kuala Lumpur.

The accommodation costs were €1,767 and the internal flights to the island from the mainland cost €1,180, bringing the total bill to €2,947.

During their trip to the island, the delegation met with members of the Malaysian Nature Society, Dr Loh Chi Leong and Irshad Mobarak, the department confirmed.

Last night, a PR representative group called upon the Government to demand a minimum level of professional qualification from companies offered public sector PR contracts.

Public Relations Institute of Ireland president Pat Montague said the combination of qualification standards with a more transparent procurement system is in everyone’s interests and should be become the required norm as soon as possible.