THE Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, defended the appointment of advertising agency Quinn McDonnell Pattison to conduct the Government's divorce referendum campaign.
Mr Taylor said that he had reviewed the circumstances surrounding the appointment and was satisfied that the tendering process leading to QMP's appointment was "properly conducted, and those involved in recommending the appointment acted entirely honestly and properly throughout."
He was responding to a series of questions from the Fianna Fail frontbencher, Dr Michael Woods. In a written reply, Mr Taylor said the first he knew of the letter from Mr Conor Quinn, a partner in QMP, (brother of the Minister for Finance) to the special adviser to the Tanaiste about the contract was when it was read in court last week.
On the suggestion in the letter that the awarding of the advertising contract be "buried in a press release", Mr Taylor said he clearly would not approve of that. The record showed that advice was not adopted.
He outlined the procedures which were followed in regard to the contract, including the appointment of a committee of officials. Invitations were sent to a number of agencies. The number asked to make submissions was eventually reduced to three QMP, McConnells and Arks and subsequently to two, QMP and McConnells.
McConnells had strengths which the committee thought might be availed of and the committee asked the two companies to explore the possibility of working together. That proposal, however, did not find agreement.
A long period elapsed between May 1994 and July 1995 during which there was a court challenge to the Judicial Separation Act, and this delayed the divorce campaign. In his letter to Mr Fergus Finlay, the Tanaiste's adviser, in May 1995, Mr Conor Quinn appeared to assume that his company had the contract for the campaign, "There was no basis in fact for that assumption because the contract had yet to be awarded under procedures which were in operation in my Department and the Government Information Service."
Mr Taylor said Mr Finlay anticipated possible criticism of the appointment of QMP because of a family connection with the Minister for Finance. "I would not be human if I too did not have concern at the family connection in question. I had queried that aspect in May 1994 when it was made clear to me that QMP was the outstanding candidate for the contract."
The special committee advised him that if the proposal to award the contract to QMP was rejected because one member of QMP had a family connection with a member of the Government, that would be a complete injustice to QMP.
"Had it been possible to proceed with the referendum in 1994 it would have avoided a situation in which QMP was left for a period of over one year knowing that they had made the best presentation but had to accept that no proper contract was possible until close to finalisation of the Government's divorce proposals.
"Fergus Finlay's discussions with Conor Quinn on May 2nd, 1995 were based on Mr Finlay's assumption, made in good faith, that QMP were likely to be awarded the contract in due course and his concern lest the known family connection be subject to misrepresentation."
Dr Woods, during the Budget debate yesterday, said the only construction that could be placed on Mr Quinn's letter to Mr Finlay was that the contract had been committed to QMR Responsibility for this "shabby dealing" lay with the Tanaiste and his special adviser.