Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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34. To ask the Taoiseach his Department's budget for social media. [4304/18]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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A key part of the modernisation of Government communications is the greater use of social media. Four campaigns undertaken by the Strategic Communications Unit in 2017 had an informational video component which was promoted on social media - YouTube, Facebook and Twitter at a total cost of €21,895. It is not possible at this stage to give an overall budget figure for social media. Spend in this area will be dictated by the scale, frequency and nature of campaigns. The use of social media, as with all media, plays an important role in communicating to our citizens the work of Government and the services that they are entitled to.

For example, the video explaining the extension of Treatment Benefits - optical and dental to the self employed was viewed 283,370 times. In fact there has been a significant increase in optical and dental treatment benefit uptake with approximately 227,000 claims made in November and December 2017 with €15 million benefit paid.

The use of social media forms part of the Unit's work on priority cross Government initiatives that impact on the lives of citizens. Its focus is to streamline communications by working with other departments to deliver on these priority cross Government campaigns.