IVAN YATES AND A number of political public relations specialists are to be invited to an Oireachtas committee to discuss transparency issues in the sector.

Along with the media watchdog Coimisiún na Meán, it is understood the Oireachtas Media Committee will also invite political and PR advisers Mandy Johnston, Terry Prone and Lucinda Creighton to appear.

Yates, a former minister turned political pundit stepped aside from a podcast he co-presented with Matt Cooper after it was revealed he was involved with Fianna Fáil’s presidential election campaign.

Fianna Fáil later clarified that the party has “for many years” used the services of media skills consultants, “like all political parties”.

It said the party currently works with a number of providers on an ad-hoc basis, adding that during the presidential campaign, it retained the services of Yates to provide interview and debate training for a total of four hours. It later emerged that over the years, Yates has also trained a number of Fianna Fáil ministers. 

Coimisiún na Meán is now carrying out a review in the matter, with Newstalk, a radio station for which Yates also did some work for during the presidential campaign, also carrying out an internal review. 

In terms of the other guests that are to be invited in, Johnston, has her own radio show on Newstalk and is also a columnist and media consultant. She was a former Government Press Secretary and advisor during the Fianna Fáil-led 2002-2007 and 2007-2011 governments.

Prone is a well-known media PR consultant, chairperson of the Communications Clinic and columnist, while Creighton is a former Fine Gael minister who set up a consultancy firm after departing from the Renua party. 

Not confrontational

Speaking to The Journal, the committee chair Labour’s Alan Kelly said he hopes all invitees will attend, stating that the meetings will not be confrontational.

Kelly said he had no issue with people working in the media and also advising politicians or political parties, but said “the public needs to know that this work has been done so that they can look at or listen to, or read what they are doing, through that lens, through the lens of transparency”. 

“The reason I think it would be good for the people to come in [to the committee] is because there’s obviously going to be a registry change, and before that, it would be good for them to express their views on how this can be managed into the future,” said Kelly.

While the commission is obliged to appear before the committee, the other invitees are not.

However, Kelly said he is hopeful they will attend.

“I see no reason not to come in. I think it will helpful to them. I think this whole process will be helpful,” he said. 

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Kelly added that he doesn’t think it’s realistic that a politician would seek advice from somebody who wasn’t in the field, stating it would be pointless to get media advice from someone who doesn’t work in it.

“So people who would advise politicians or political parties on this… they really have to be people who are currently in the media… I think it’s unrealistic for people to say that that wouldn’t happen,” said Kelly, who added that it just the process around that and the transparency element that needs to be put in place.

Fianna Fáil’s Malcolm Byrne who sits on the committee said he didn’t believe this should be a priority for the committee, but said:

“I think the key is transparency. Various newspaper columnists and media presenters have had different roles, including for government agencies or interest groups over the years. Ivan Yates failed to declare his interests – that was the problem.

“This shouldn’t be a witch-hunt of columnists and commentators that hold different views.”

The meeting is expected to take place in two weeks time.