The GIS or Government Information Service is having a makeover. From now on it will known as the Government Press Service, it will be more computer-friendly and it will have four new staffers. The jobs are to be advertised immediately.
The makeover comes on foot of the retirement of Grace Fagan yesterday and the urgent need for extra staff to assist Government Press Secretary Joe Lennon and head of the GIS, John Murray, as radio and TV stations multiply and the number of media queries shoot up. The name change comes because all Government departments have their own information and press offices now and the central office deals mainly with overall Government policy.
Fagan served in the Department of Finance under John Bruton, Ray MacSharry and Albert Reynolds. She moved to the GIS with Reynolds and stayed on under Bruton and now Bertie Ahern.
Unfortunately, Fagan says, she has signed the Official Secrets Act so is unwilling to reveal anything of the many tales she no doubt knows. The North, she says, has been the one issue running right through her career and she is only too happy that things are looking up now.
Quidnunc is at rholohan@irish-times.ie