Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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122. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the details of any payments made by his Department, its agencies or any bodies under his aegis to any broadcasters here in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016; the broadcaster to which the funds were provided; the reason for the payments; and if there are any reasons for payments to broadcasters in 2017. [14729/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I understand that the Deputy's question relates to payments to broadcasting organisations.

The statutory bodies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Citizens Information Board, the Pensions Authority, the Pensions Council, the Pensions Ombudsman and the Social Welfare Tribunal. No payments were made by any of these bodies to broadcasting organisations in 2014, 2015 or 2016.

The Department placed a number of small scale advertisements with local and regional radio broadcasters over the period from 2014 to 2016. It is important to note that the sole purpose of the advertising was to promote awareness to customers of my Department's services and activities, including its participation in local events such as Jobs Fairs. A full breakdown of the expenditure is outlined in the table below:

Payments made to broadcasters here in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016