Wicklow Sinn Féin TD John Brady challenged Minister Joe O’Brien in the Dáil this week over the failure of the government to introduce a communications plan around immigration. Despite being repeatedly challenged on the issue by deputy Brady over the last year or more, Minister’s Roderic O’Gorman, and Joe O’Brien have failed to act. They had previously claimed that a proposal went to the office of the Taoiseach but reports in the media suggest that this was knocked back by the office of the Taoiseach.
Which raises questions over the responsibility of Taoiseach Simon Harris for the communications debacle over a series of protests over the last few months, where the information vacuum left by government failure was filled and controlled in the main by predominantly United States based conspiracy theorists.
Brady said:
“I asked the Minister to give details on the current communications plan when it comes to engaging with public representatives and members of the community about the provision of IPAS accommodation. Communication has been lacking and this has caused a lot of concern and anger in communities.
The Minister could not answer the question, as there is no communication strategy in place. In reality his attempt to respond raises more questions than answers. The need for a proper and comprehensive communication plan is something I have raised consistently.
This is something we were told was being worked on 12 months ago. It was supposed to have been brought before Cabinet back in February and we are now being told by the Minister of State that this is still being worked on by the Department of the Taoiseach. We need clarity here.
Either there is a communication plan or there is not.
As I see it, there is no communication plan. However, the critical part is engaging with communities and that has failed dismally. Public representatives have been lied to regarding the provision of IPAS accommodation and have been given half-truths, mistruths and total untruths.
Communities feel abandoned by the lack of communication. It is one thing coming in retrospectively to tell them what is happening in their community, but that engagement needs to start from day one and that is seriously lacking.
The lack of a comprehensive communication plan is fanning the flames of hate and resentment being led by right-wing people exploiting the vacuum that the Minister of State and the Government have created because it is not putting out accurate information.
We see an analysis was carried out by Sky News on foot of a recent protest. A total of 56% of the online content originated in the US, 20% in Ireland and 10% in Britain.
There was no strategy there from the Department and the Government to counter that. Public representatives such as myself are being lied to and have been lied to by the Department regarding the provision of accommodation where bulldozers were on the site in my constituency stripping back topsoil and putting down hardcore and members of the community and I were being told no decision had been taken on that specific site.
I have a role. I want to play a role in bringing communities with us, but when that information is not there and there is no comprehensive communication strategy with communities or public representatives, it makes my job very difficult if not impossible, and that is a result of the failure of this Government and that of the Minister.