Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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594. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the amount spent by her Department on third party public relations advice, communications advice, online advertising and public awareness campaigns to date in 2018, by month and company engaged in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39638/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department administers over 70 separate schemes and services, which affect the lives of almost every person in the State. In 2017, some 1.7 million applications for benefits, assistance and access to schemes were received and processed, and over 82 million individual payments were made to people across all age groups and to employers. The Department is committed to ensuring that members of the general public are fully aware of the welfare supports and services that are available to them, and public information campaigns are an important part of our work.

No third party public relations or communications advisory expenditure was incurred by my Department to date in 2018.

All expenditure on public information/advertising campaigns undertaken in 2018, by month and company engaged, are provided in the following table.

Expenditure on all Advertising & Campaigns 2018

In accordance with Government procurement policy, the Department undertook procurement for the provision of Media Strategy, Planning and Buying Services and for Customer Communication Services in 2017. Wavemaker was appointed under an Office of Government Procurement Framework Tender for "Media Strategy, Planning and Buying Services".

The Department tendered for Customer Communications and Design Services in 2017, and Creed were appointed following a competitive procurement processes via eTenders.