John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 1051: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount spent on advertising in the Irish language by his Department and by agencies under the aegis of his Department since the enactment of the Official Languages Act 2003; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30395/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Advertising undertaken by my Department in Ireland typically includes advisory notices on public opening hours over holiday periods, changes in passport application procedures and fees, recruitment notices and public information notices relating to Ireland's official aid programme. My Department's policy is to keep advertising costs to a minimum and much of this material is now placed on the Department's Website. However, a certain amount of advertising continues to be necessary, in order to reach all of our customers, particularly in relation to important passport and consular services. Since 2003, all advertisements are either bilingual or run simultaneously in the Irish Language media, as appropriate.

Advertising is charged on a per cm/column basis and the cost of the Irish language element of advertisements is not specifically identified or recorded when making payment. As a result, it is not possible to disaggregate the Irish language element of such costs. However, the following table shows my Department's overall expenditure on advertising, for each year since 2003 and, given the usual bilingual nature of the advertisements placed, approximately 50% of these costs would relate to the Irish language element. In addition, my Department has incurred some expenditure in specific Irish Language media. These are also shown in the table, in respect of the two votes for which my Department is responsible: Vote 28 (Foreign Affairs) and Vote 29 (International Cooperation), which funds the Irish Aid Programme.

There are four bodies under the remit of my Department. Three of these have a research and advisory function, namely; the Advisory Board for Irish Aid, the Emigrant Services Advisory Committee and the Development Education Advisory Committee, and have no dedicated budget for advertising.

While the Fulbright Commission operates under the aegis of my Department and, as Minister, I have certain specific statutory responsibilities towards it, the Fulbright Commission enjoys 'autonomy of management and administration', by reason of section 2(5) of the Educational Exchange (Ireland and the United States of America), Act 1991.