Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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26. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the amount spent by his Department on third party public relations advice, communications advice, online advertising and public awareness campaigns from January 2017 to date in 2018, by year, month and company engaged in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11768/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The position in relation to expenditure by my Department on external public relations or communications advice remains as set out in my reply to Question No. 108 of 13 February 2018.

As regards online advertising and public awareness campaigns, my Department engages in these where there is Government information that needs to be brought to the attention of citizens. Since January 2017 there have been two such campaigns: one for the launch of the online passport renewal service and one for the Government Brexit Update email service.

Online adult passport renewals are a key part of the Passport Reform Programme and my Department advertised during 2017 in order to ensure a good uptake by citizens of this innovative service.

The advertising in question took the form of a multi-format outdoor transport campaign combined with digital units in Dublin and Belfast Airports to promote the online passport service. The outdoor transport campaign ran over two two-week cycles in May and June 2017. The digital units in Dublin and Belfast Airports ran from May to August. In addition to the outdoor campaign, a further online and social media campaign was also run with ads being placed around digital articles and social media activity on travel-related themes. This part of the campaign ran from April until August of last year.

The advertising was successful in helping to raise public awareness of this award-winning new service and has seen over 148,000 people avail of it to date.

The Government Brexit Update email service forms part of my Department’s overall strategy to keep the Irish public fully informed and up-to date on the direct implications and challenges of Brexit. Previously operated by the Department of An Taoiseach, it was re-launched last month along with a new dedicated Brexit website – www.dfa.ie/Brexit.

The Update is issuing on a regular basis via a commercial provider (MailChimp) and provides information on latest developments in the ongoing Brexit negotiations, on the latest available research publications and on engagement at Government level. It also highlights the range of business supports that are available through the various Government Enterprise agencies.

Details of expenditure on each of the above campaigns is set out as follows: