The decision to appoint Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan as a tourism sporting ambassador was sharply criticised by the Department of Health because of his close links with the tobacco industry.
Mr Jordan was recently appointed by the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid. Following a report in The Irish Times in May detailing the appointment, an assistant secretary in the Department of Health wrote a strongly worded letter to the secretary-general of Dr McDaid's department, Ms Margaret Hayes, to protest at the appointment.
The letter and other documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Dr McDaid allocated £100,000 to Mr Jordan, four times the amount agreed for individuals under the tourism sporting ambassador programme. Jockey Adrian Maguire was paid £20,000 for the role.
"This Department would have serious reservations about this appointment in view of the fact that Mr Jordan is the leader of a motor-racing team which is heavily dependent on tobacco sponsorship," said the letter.
It went on to say that the Department had "invested much time and energy in getting all other Irish sporting bodies not to accept tobacco sponsorship and the appointment will tend to undermine our position".
From the Department's knowledge of the tobacco industry, "we feel that this appointment will be seen as a victory by the industry and is likely to be strongly criticised by the anti-smoking groups".
The letter questioned whether any safeguards had been put in place to ensure that the appointment "does not frustrate our efforts to promote a tobacco-free society".
Dr Fenton Howell, a board member of Ash, the anti-smoking group, said the appointment sent out the "wrong messages" and it was "a slap in the teeth" that someone so intrinsically linked to the tobacco industry was so rewarded.
A spokesman for Dr McDaid said the contract was with "Mr Jordan and not with the Jordan team, so the tobacco thing does not arise. Mr Jordan is doing his best to promote Ireland." He said the Minister had the funds available to him and he raised the budget to allow him to recruit Mr Jordan, who had a worldwide profile.
However, Dr Howell disagreed. "Saying that it is Eddie Jordan the individual is a nonsense. Formula One does not exist without tobacco."
A Bord Failte spokesman said the contract was good value for money. "Eddie Jordan has an extremely high profile and if he continues to have that profile we really feel we will get the value. He has an extremely high profile."
A further memorandum sent on April 28th by an assistant secretary in Dr McDaid's Department said that previous Bord Failte grants to the Jordan Grand Prix team, for a total of £650,000 in 1994 and 1995, were not good value for money.
"Both allocations were evaluated by Bord Failte and the Department and neither was regarded as successful in terms of the promotional benefit, impact on tourism and other benefits. In the light of the difficulty in identifying any real tourism benefits from the sponsorship, the industry's criticism of tourism funding for this purpose and the competition for limited tourism marketing resources, support was discontinued after 1995."
The memo went on to say that a proposal was received in May 1998 from Mr Jordan that he personally, as opposed to the team, be contracted to promote Ireland, Island of Sport.
"The Department expressed strong reservations about the value of the proposal and you decided not to pursue it at the time. Reservations expressed at the time included the difficulty in identifying the target market or the potential return on expenditure in tourism promotion terms and a view that sponsorship of Eddie Jordan as an individual was likely to give rise to adverse media reaction given the high profile sponsorships already associated with the Jordan team (including tobacco) and his personal role in advertising companies such as Esat (see advertisements in today's papers). A PQ [Dail question] was put down to you last March to ascertain whether sponsorship was being given by the Department or Bord Failte to the Jordan team and if this was consistent with the stated Government policy on smoking."
Concluding, the memo told Dr McDaid that it was his decision to enlist Eddie Jordan in the programme.
"I strongly recommend that you write to him to invite him to join the programme and ask Bord Failte to engage in detailed negotiations with him to determine how they may get best value for any given level of investment".
On May 10th, Mr Chris Kane, Bord Failte's corporate communications general manager, wrote to Dr McDaid's personal adviser, Mr Gerry Howlin, concerning the sporting ambassador programme. Referring to the Jordan appointment, he said the "possible negative implications of the existing tobacco sponsorship should be considered".
Two days later, an assistant secretary in Dr McDaid's department wrote to the chief executive of Bord Failte, Mr John Dully, stating that the Minister had "decided that Eddie Jordan should receive the sum of £100,000 for tourism work which he will undertake under the 1999 programme".
In response to the Department of Health letter of protest, the secretary-general of the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Ms Hayes, said Dr McDaid had included Mr Jordan "personally, as one of the 1999 ambassadors".
Under the terms of the contract, he would undertake a variety of tourism promotional appearances and would wear, as appropriate, a Bord Failte Ireland or Ryder Cup polo shirt.