Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy asked about local radio. We deliberately chose to advertise in the print media, both local and national newspapers, on local and national radio and on billboards throughout the country. Television advertising is extremely expensive, and we are trying to keep costs down. The total cost of the campaign was slightly more than €2 million, of which about 25% went on advertising. I am fairly confident the campaign was successful. We will do a limited amount of research later in the year to find out how successful the campaign actually was, but it certainly brought the issue to the public's attention.

One thing I deplored was the cynical attitude of certain columnists to the whole exercise. The reason we conducted the campaign was that most people did not know we had an emergency plan in place and the handful of people who knew there was an emergency plan did not know what it involved. We also heard many comments about how simple the information in the booklet was. We did research with the public before the booklet was produced and we found this was exactly what they wanted. They wanted reassurance that there was a plan in place rather than details on the specific aspects of any plan. Much more detailed information is available on the website and there are a number of contact telephone numbers that people can call to get more information. I deplore the cynical attitude I mentioned. The booklet was produced based on similar projects in such places as the UK and Australia. We did no more and no less than that — we spent a lot less than had been spent in other countries. A total of €2 million to print and distribute the booklet and advertise in the newspapers and on national radio was quite a small sum in the overall scheme of things.

I did not understand the Deputy's first question.

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