Tag Archives: The Communications Clinic

Terry Prone (left), of the Communications Clinic, and Norma Foley, Minister for Education

This morning.

Via Irish Independent:

Education Minister Norma Foley’s department hired a high-profile public relations firm before informing Cabinet about errors in the calculated grades system for the Leaving Cert.

The Department of Education sought the services of The Communication Clinic the day after errors in the system emerged.

However, Ms Foley did not inform some of her own Cabinet colleagues of the mistakes in the grading system at a meeting a week later.

Good times.

Department of Education hired PR firm the day after Leaving Cert exams error came to light Independent.ie)

Previously: Terry Prone on Broadsheet

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Via Jeff Rudd (United People)

From top: Terry Prone, Frances Fitzgerald and Norin O’Sullivan

Last Friday journalist Ken Foxe revealed that the Office of the Information Commissioner had discovered 68 records of correspondence between former Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and PR advisor Terry Prone, of the Communications Clinic between May 8, 2014 and March 11, 2017.

These were records which the Department of Justice previously said never existed.

The OIC made the discovery after Mr Foxe appealed the department’s claim that there were no such records in existence.

As a consequence of the OIC’s examination, the OIC Peter Tyndall quashed the department’s decision to refuse to release the correspondence and requested that the department ask Ms Fitzgerald to check her personal email accounts for any other records.

The Department of Justice has since told Mr Foxe it is considering Mr Tyndall’s decision.

From 2014 to 2017, Ms Prone wasn’t only advising Ms Fitzgerald. She was also advising the then Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.

As Ms Fitzgerald was the Justice Minister at the time, Ms O’Sullivan was, on paper, answerable to Ms Fitzgerald.

The Disclosures Tribunal saw how statements or draft speeches were written with the help of Ms Prone by Ms O’Sullivan for Ms Fitzgerald concerning issues about Ms O’Sullivan.

Mr Justice Peter Charleton described this sequence of events worthy of Myles na Gopaleen’s satire.

Continue reading →

anton-savage

*sound of miniscule violin*

Previously: Kate Fitzgerald on Broadsheet

From top: Terry Prone, Fr Kevin Reynolds and Tom Savage

On May 9, 2012, RTE board chairman Tom Savage, told Newstalk he did not learn of the controversy surrounding the Mission To Prey programme until September 2011 – three months after Fr Kevin Reynolds started to take legal action and four months after his own PR firm (The Communications Clinic) was apparently employed to deal with the fall out from the show’s findings.

He also told an Oireachtas Committee meeting: “(The RTE board)  did not know until the evidence came that the first paternity test had shown that Fr Reynolds was not the parent. That was when we were informed. I was informed just in the lead-in to the September board meeting.”

Which makes this fairly stunning:

The assistance given to Fr Reynolds was not previously disclosed by Ms Prone, who only admitted aiding an umbrella group of Irish missionaries.

This initial disclosure prompted questions about her husband’s knowledge about the early stages of the Fr Reynolds affair. Ms Prone insisted she never discussed the Fr Kevin Reynolds issue with him.

But according to Fr Reynolds, Ms Prone — who runs the Communications Clinic with her husband — agreed to assist the priest with a statement days after the broadcast of the infamous ‘Prime Time Mission to Prey’ programme.

*thud*

Fr Reynolds says Prone Personally Helped Him Draft Response To RTE (Barry Duggan, Irish Independent)

Previously: Was The Communications Clinic Hired To Deal With Mission To Prey Before It Was Even Broadcast?

(Photocall ireland)

Tom Savage and Terry Prone during Friday’s Late Late Show 50th Anniversary.

RTE chairman Tom Savage remains unaware of any potential conflicts of interest that may arise through his directorship of The Communications Clinic because his wife Terry Prone does not tell him.

…Ms Prone told the Sunday Independent yesterday that her husband, a former priest, only found out this week that his company trained the Irish Missionary Union to deal with the potential fallout from the Mission To Prey broadcast.

The TV personality said she did not see how people could perceive a conflict of interest from the IMU training or from services that their media-relations company might provide to RTE broadcasters.

Ms Prone commented: “People could perceive that I had three ears and a tail but that doesn’t make it fact.”

 

Tom Savage Needs To tell Us Why This Is Not A Conflict Of Interest (Philip Ryan, Sunday Independent)

Time To Sharpen Canines On Media Conflicts Of Interest (Elaine Byrne, Sunday Independent)

Previously: Was The Communications Clinic Hired To Deal Wth Mission To Prey Before It Was Even Broadcast?

You literally couldn’t make it up.

The Communications Clinic was hired by the Irish Missionaries Union ahead of the broadcast of the controversial Mission to Prey programme which libelled Fr Kevin Reynolds last May but the PR firm has said that Tom Savage – one of its directors and the chairman of the RTÉ board – knew nothing of the account.

Another of the company’s directors, Terry Prone, told TheJournal.ie that Savage would have known nothing of the IMU contract because of client confidentiality.

 

*thud*

Communications Clinic says Savage knew nothing of Mission to Prey account (Journal.ie)

Earlier: Was The Communications Clinic Hired To Deal With Mission To Prey Before It Was Even Broadcast?

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Apparently so.

On Monday, May 16, the Irish Missionaries Union circulated its Strategic Plan 2011- 2014 to its members.

In it, the IMU said it was preparing for an RTE expose (Mission to Prey). It also said it planned to hold a workshop for members to deal with the expected fallout from the RTE show.

This was exactly a week before RTE Prime Time Investigates aired Mission to Prey, on Monday, May 23,

A day before the broadcast, on Sunday, May 22, the Sunday Business Post wrote a story about the document but added details of how Terry Prone (above), a director of The Communications Clinic – and the wife of RTE Board chairman Tom Savage (top), also a director of The Communications Clinic – was hired by the IMU in advance of the Mission to Prey broadcast.

The SBP article (behind paywall) said: “The body representing Irish Catholic missionary congregations is developing a strategy to prepare its members for an onslaught of allegations of sexual abuse. The Irish Missionary Union (IMU) is understood to have hired several public relations experts, including Terry Prone, to manage the fallout from an RTE Prime Time documentary, to be screened this week, about allegations of sexual abuse by Irish priests in Africa.”

On Monday, May 23, RTE broadcast Mission to Prey, despite offers by Fr Reynolds to take a paternity test to prove his innocence.

On September 22, 2011, the High Court heard how two paternity tests showed Fr Reynolds was not the father of the woman’s child, ultimately leading to Fr Reynold’s vindication.

On May 9, 2012, Tom Savage, told Newstalk he did not learn of the controversy surrounding the Mission To Prey programme until September 2011 – three months after Fr Reynolds started to take legal action and four months after his own PR firm was apparently employed to deal with the fall out from the show’s findings.

He said: “When we were told at our September board meeting. Because obviously if you are dealing with a huge organisation like RTE, with so much output in so many areas, the board is never informed on an ongoing basis of every single issue that crops up. And it tends to be that only when problems emerge and they’re either raised directly with the board or they’re raised through the Director General’s report that comes to us at the board meeting, the first item on the board meeting, that we have each month, we heard about it in September.”

Mr Savage also told an Oireachtas Committee meeting last week: “(The RTE board)  did not know until the evidence came that the first paternity test had shown that Fr Reynolds was not the parent. That was when we were informed. I was informed just in the lead-in to the September board meeting.”

(Laura Hutton and Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

The cringe-making language used in the emails was only surpassed by the apparent lack of understanding on the part of Ms Prone as to her role as a part-time adviser on speech writing for a Minister. I loved the bit that included: “Bottom line – us being nice isn’t enough . . .”. Us? A speech writer on a fee is just that, a paid retainer putting a speech into a literary and/or speaking format suited to the client’s wishes and style. He/she should have no role whatsoever in drafting notes or directives for civil servants warning them to deliver on time or else. A minister, or departmental secretary general for that matter, who would allow a PR outsider usurp their position is, in my view, not worth his or her salt.

As a former civil servant who wrote many successful (I hope) ministerial speeches/briefings over the years, I was never subject at any time to school-marmish comments by temporary PR advisers or their ilk, nor would I have accepted same from them. It will be interesting to see if Ms Prone, on mature reflection, might issue an apology to all concerned and confine her BlackBerry use to the contract work for which she is being paid from public funds

 

A Word of Advice To Pr Advisors (Patrick Judge, Irish Times Letters)

Good old Tess.

In one email, sent in January by Ms Prone to the Minister’s private office, she said: “Bottom line – us being nice isn’t enough . . .

“And getting action out of people may require that action is taken at a higher level with the department.”

Ms Prone also warned the private office in another email sent in February, regarding an event in Dr Reilly’s home area of Fingal in north Dublin, that as he would be speaking in his own backyard he would “ad lib their legs off”. She signalled there would be little for her to contribute in terms of speech-writing for the event.

“I figure I’m severely redundant in relation to anything in his backyard. If he suddenly feels the urge for me to write something different, I stand braced, eager and ready to serve. XXXX! Tess.”

The Irish Times reported in February that Dr Reilly and Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald were both paying out of their personal ministerial allowance for the Communications Clinic, whose directors are Ms Prone and Tom Savage, also chairman of the RTÉ board. Dr Reilly said he had paid €15,000 last year to the Communications Clinic.

Prone Tells Reilly’s Office To Toughen Up On Tardy Staff (Martin Wall, Irish Times)

Previously: A Breakdown In Communications

Kate Fitzgerald

The Irish Times And Kate Fitzgerald

Let Kate Have The Final Word