Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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318. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she has engaged a third-party company in each of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020 to conduct online and or social media monitoring and or provide reports on social media coverage of her Department; if so, the cost of same; and if the name of the social media platforms being monitored will be provided. [28922/20]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I have been informed by officials in my Department that no third-party company has been engaged in social media monitoring and, therefore, no expenditure was incurred in relation to social media monitoring in each of the years 2017 to date in 2020.As outlined in a previous reply to Question No. 1113 if 16 June 2020, such work is carried out inhouse by the communications team in the Department, albeit to keep abreast of the level of engagement/reach on the Department's own posts on its own social media platforms.

In relation to monitoring of online media, as outlined in a previous reply to Question No. 88 of 30 September from the Deputy, media monitoring of coverage relating to my Department is carried out on national and regional print and online publications as well as broadcast channels in the Republic of Ireland. This service was provided by Kantar Media from 2017 until February 2020, when the service transferred to LFMI Media/Rue Point Media. Newspaper Licensing Ireland (UK service) provides access to UK based publications.

The information sought by the Deputy in relation to expenditure on media monitoring of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020 from my Department's administrative budget is set out below, the figures include monitoring of national, regional print publications as well as online publications.

Cost is a primary consideration in all decisions related to expenditure on media monitoring.