Ministers cannot forget why they were elected [Independent.ie]
- Published: 27 April 2011
EVEN by the standards of civil service flummery, the reply received by this newspaper from Ruairi Quinn's Department of Education about public relations contract for the training agency FAS fair takes the breath away.
It bears little or no relation to the 15 questions asked by the Irish Independent about the awarding of the six-figure contract to the agency Fleishman Hillard, whose head of consulting, Mark Mortell, is close to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and an architect of Fine Gael's election campaign.
Mr Quinn did not award the contract, which was made by the outgoing Government on election day. Some will see that as odd in itself, but the real oddity is why FAS was held to need an outside PR consultant at all.
The Coalition programme for government says the disgraced training agency will be abolished. The curt answer from the department is not nearly as specific, saying that Mr Quinn is "reviewing options" an answer which will raise suspicions about another policy U-turn.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
