Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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108. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the amount spent by his Department on photography, by photographer and-or agency, public relations or communications advice external to the media officers of his Department, by agency; the use of public relations or communications advice by an agency fully funded by his Department by agency and month, in tabular form, since 1 January 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6749/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Photography - 2016 to date

My Department only avails of the services of external photographic agencies where it is warranted, in particular for major events and State occasions. This is a service which my Department provides so that the media can easily and freely avail of photography where their own staff photographers cannot be fully accommodated. Events such as the visit of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in May 2017 and those by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada in July 2017 and UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in November 2017 resulted in positive overseas media coverage of Ireland.

Through the Office of Government Procurement an updated Multi-Supplier Framework Agreement for the provision of Professional Photography and Videography is now in operation. My Department procures the services of external photographic agencies via this Framework where necessary.

In addition, my Department continues to avail of in-house resources for photography whenever possible.

The cost of photography to my Department for events which took place in 2018, 2017 and 2016 are listed in Tables 1, 2 and 3. In the time available, it has not proved possible to compile a breakdown of photography costs associated with events organized by Ireland’s network of 80 diplomatic missions abroad.

Public Relations and Communications Advice - 2016 to date

My Department has not incurred expenditure on external public relations or communications advice since 1 January 2016. My Department has from time to time commissioned companies with a public relations and communications background to provide other professional services such as project management, logistics and event management, particularly in relation to Irish Aid public outreach activities. A table containing this information is set out.

DHR Communications has been contracted to manage and administer grants to journalists reporting on international development issues under the Simon Cumbers Media Fund (SCMF) and to manage and administer annual Africa Day-related events.

The SCMF involves managing three funding rounds each year, including the annual SCMF student competition. This typically involves the following activities:

- Convening national and regional information workshops;

- Managing and administering the application process;

- Organising the judging process;

- Providing detailed feedback to all applicants;

- Processing grant payments and keeping detailed administrative and financial records;

- Maintaining and updating the SCMF website.

It should be noted that expenses paid to third parties account for approximately 30% of the total paid to DHR for managing and administering the Simon Cumbers Media Fund. This includes costs associated with maintaining and updating the SCMF website, facilitating the judging process and raising awareness of the Fund among journalists.

Following a competitive tendering process, DHR was also engaged to plan, manage and execute a national Africa Day flagship event as hosted by my Department at the Farmleigh Estate in 2016 and 2017 and also to support other Africa Day regional events held outside Dublin. This included the administration of a small grants scheme for the regional events which DHR managed on behalf of the Department in partnership with a number of local authorities. DHR also worked to raise public awareness of the Africa Day events, including through the use of social media and the Africa Day website. This public awareness work represented a very minor element of the overall project and was conducted in close cooperation with my Department’s communications office.

In relation to the expenditure on Africa Day, expenses paid to third parties accounted for between 70% and 80% of the total costs listed. This included expenditure on security, sanitation, venue set-up, health and safety issues and small grants to facilitate the participation of community groups.

Table 4 sets out the payments for project and event management since 2016.

Table 1: Photography - 2018

HQ Total: €676.50; Total: €676.50

Table 2: Photography Costs - 2017

HQ Total: €40,119.29; Mission Total: €14,216.21; Department Total for 2017: €54,335.50

Table 3: Photography Costs - 2016

HQ Total: €21, 681.87; Mission Total: €10,030.36; Department Total for 2016: €31,712.23

Table 4: Project Management, Logistics and Event Management Costs (Irish Aid Public Outreach Events) – 2016 to date