Written answers
Tuesday, 7 March 2017
Department of Finance
Public Relations Contracts Expenditure
John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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152. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount his Department spent on public relations consultants and all matters relating to public relations costs in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11429/17]
Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I take it that the Deputy is referring solely to external public relations and not to advertising that would be incurred by my Department in the normal course of business, such as entries into telephone directories, the placing of advertisements in national newspapers, recruitment advertising, etc.
The use of external Public Relations consultants in respect of my Department in 2016 is outlined in the following table:
| Details of service provided | Public Relations Firm |
|---|---|
| Following the Government decision of 13 May 2015 on mortgage arrears, my Department was asked to coordinate the development and implementation of a communications strategy around the Government-funded and other available supports for borrowers in arrears. The duration of the contract was from October 2015 until June 2016. Responsibility for the mortgage arrears publicity campaign now rests with the Abhaile Mortgage Arrears Resolution Service. The amount spent on this campaign in 2016 was €73,135.76 | Carr Communications was the successful tenderer following a public procurement exercise advertised on eTenders. |
| Under the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, Action 110 required an "advertising campaign to leverage support for and drive utilisation of the Supporting SMEs Online Tool and increase awareness of the existence of State supports for business." This advertising campaign was co-ordinated by the SME Communications Group a sub-group of the SME State Bodies Group which is chaired by my Department. The second phase of this advertising campaign took place in March 2016 at a cost of €14,314.74. | ICAN was the successful tenderer following a public procurement exercise. |
| As part of a range of competition measures agreed with the European Commission under their respective EU-Restructuring plans, AIB and Permanent TSB are required to provide funding to a public awareness campaign (such campaign to be facilitated by Ireland through an appropriate state body) to raise awareness and promote customer switching. As such my Department is currently managing a contract for the provision of Research, Design and Media Buy Services (Public awareness and customer switching campaign) in retail banking markets. The media campaign went live on a variety of media channels from 27th February 2017 and the campaign website, www.switchyourbank.ie, is also currently live. The amount spent on this public awareness campaign in 2016 was €24,682.00. It is important to note that this campaign is being funded by the two banks in its entirety. | Language Communications Ltd was appointed as Prime Contractor for this campaign following a public procurement competition advertised on eTenders and the Official Journal of the EU. |
The Department's policy regarding employing external groups is to follow the relevant public procurement rules and procedures.
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