€85,000 spent on newspapers
by Ken Corla

Fingal County Council officials are a particularly well-read group of people according to a reply given at this month’s county council meeting.

Following a query from a member of the public expressing concern at the volume and cost of newspapers purchased by the council, a Labour Party councillor for the Swords area, Cllr. Gerry Maguire, asked for details of the number of papers purchased each day for official use.

In response the county manager revealed that a total of 184 national papers are purchased each day and a further 61 local papers (Fingal Independent) each week.

According to the manager, “these newspapers are distributed to senior staff on the basis of their responsibility for dealing with media reports related to the Council and to promulgate awareness of matters published by way of official notices and the like. Staff at the most senior level may receive more than one daily newspaper and an evening newspaper circulating in the area each day,” said the manager.

Based on the manager’s figures. a quick calculation indicates that Fingal County Council spends over €85,000 each year on providing senior staff with a daily newspaper.

The manager defends this expenditure on the basis that “it is judged essential that these staff are aware of matters of interest affecting Council business, be it by way of news or opinion, so as to be in a position to best present information to the public on matters of Council interest.”

However bearing in mind the amount of time these senior staff would have to spend reading 184 papers each day to look for “matters of interest affecting Council business”, would it not be much more cost efficient to engage a professional news cuttings service or a couple of junior staff to scour the daily papers and provide them with the relevant information?

 

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