Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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729. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the amount spent on digital marketing in each of the past eight years; the items on which funds were spent; the criteria by which target audiences were selected; the amount of the digital spend targeted here; the amount targeted abroad; the amount that related to private companies; the amount that related to policy initiatives; and the purpose of the digital advertisements. [29398/19]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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My Department was established on 19 July 2017. Since then the following has been expended on digital marketing :

Earlier this year, my Department hosted a series of regional ‘Rural Opportunity' information sessions to raise awareness of the wide variety of funding supports available to rural communities from across Government Departments. Staff from my Department and a number of other Departments and agencies were also on hand at the events to provide further information to attendees on the range of supports available. As part of the Rural Opportunity campaign, a video was produced by a company, procured through the tendering process, which featured recipients, and demonstrated the range of supports available, detailing how the funding received made a difference to:

- job creation/enterprise in rural communities, enabling people to work in rural Ireland;

- improving the quality of life for those living and working in rural communities – reducing social isolation and improving social cohesion;

- attracting more visitors and tourism to rural communities;

- harnessing a vibrant cultural scene within rural communities; and - assisting a Gaeltacht community and promoting the Irish language.

The cost of producing the campaign video was €19,557. In addition to the production cost, €4,078 was spent on promoting the video on social media to users in Ireland (not internationally) who had displayed an online interest in Irish rural life.

My Department also placed an online advertisement for the public consultation on our Department's Irish language Scheme which cost €615. This is the Department's first Language Scheme, and runs from 2019-2022. This Scheme has been formulated with the intention of ensuring that all relevant obligations under the Official Languages Act relating to the Department of Rural and Community Development are being fully addressed on an incremental basis, through this and future schemes. It sets out the Department’s commitments to customer service in Irish and advises of the availability of services through Irish.