The Minister for the Environment and Local Government has been criticised for spending over £500,000 on public relations in his Department last year.
Mr Eamon Gilmore TD (Lab) said Mr Dempsey's high spending on public relations, in spite of having a fully-staffed Departmental press office, was part of a strategy to paint over a lack of achievement in one of the State's most important Departments.
Mr Gilmore, who is his party's spokesman on Environment and Local Government, said that in a written reply to a Dail question Mr Dempsey had told him that his Department in 1999 spent £571,238 in respect of press and public relations functions, made up of staff costs £120,000; Carr Communications £50,434; Drury Communications £400,804.