Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach the amount of funding allocated by his Department on the Covid-19 communications strategy since the beginning of the pandemic. [4763/21]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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€20 million was allocated in 2020 and €15 million in 2021 in my Department’s budget for COVID-19 Public Communications. The total provisional spend for 2020 is €16,900,999. This won’t be confirmed until mid-February when the 2020 accounts are finalised.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach the amount of funding spent by his Department on the Covid-19 communications strategy since the beginning of the pandemic. [4774/21]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The 2020/21 Covid19 spend on public information campaigns is listed in the tables below.

Since March, my Department has co-ordinated communications for the whole-of-government response to the pandemic. This necessitated expenditure on a broad range of targeted public messaging across 38 different information campaigns.

The overall communications strategy for Covid-19 is based on a coordinated response that ensures maximum clarity for citizens, businesses and our wider community. This aligns with both World Health Organization (WHO) and European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) advice, both of which emphasise the importance of ensuring the general public is aware of the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak, and further that a high degree of population understanding, community engagement and acceptance of the measures put in place are key in preventing further spread.

It is also recommended that communication strategies should target different audiences and provide the rationale behind the measures, also outlining the necessity to put a support system in place to provide essential services and supplies (e.g. food and medication), and to monitor vulnerable individuals.

Campaigns have included Radio, newspaper and social elements.

Last Spring a number of campaigns were run as restrictions were imposed in order to explain the measures and to reinforce public health messages. Other Campaigns focussed on targeted sectors including the Business Sector, the postponement of the Leaving Certificate, the Return to Work Campaigns and Community Wellbeing.

In May the Government’s Roadmap to Reopen Society and Business was published and a communications campaign was run to explain the different phases of the Roadmap.

During Summer 2020 the Jobs Stimulus was announced by the Government and a Campaign was run which was focussed on restoring confidence and investment in the recovery.

In Autumn Campaigns aimed at Community Wellbeing and Keeping Well and reinforcing public health messaging were run.

The AntiViral Campaign, launched in December, aims to engage with those aged 18-24, recognising that they have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Also in December, there were campaigns to inform citizens of the advice for having a safe Christmas with family and friends, and guidance on shopping safely, to reinforce public health messaging.

It is essential that citizens, business owners and communities are informed of the decisions being made by Government, and campaigns are developed and implemented to make the public aware of these decisions.

Campaigns have achieved impressive audience reach across all media platforms. The #AntiViral Campaign had over 5.7 million impressions by mid-December – we had communicated with over 300,000 young people approximately 5 times across the platforms building awareness of the Campaign. The AntiViral hashtag had over 1.1 million views and the Campaign’s positive sentiment was measured at over 60%.

Data from 25 of the Campaigns advertised in National press show an average reach of 49%, with 17 of these reaching over 50%. The average readership for the 25 campaigns was 1.9 million (with 16 of the 25 campaigns having a readership of over 2 million). Readership figures for regional newspapers is over 1.5 million for each campaign.

Radio advertising had an average audience reach of 79%, with 19 of the campaigns advertised on radio reaching over 80%.

Digital display advertising was used in 13 campaigns, with a combined audience reach of over 33 million. This is an average of 2.6 million impressions, with six of the campaigns reaching over 3 million citizens.

Of 19 campaigns analysed that used Social media advertising, an average of 4.9 million impressions were achieved, with a high of 16.1 million impressions for the Publication of the Roadmap campaign.

Advertising Costs 2020

Advertising Costs 2021

*Invoices awaited from suppliers

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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9. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on the fact that even at this late stage, the Chief Medical Officer has repeatedly had to make pleas to employers to facilitate home working; his further views on whether there should be fines in place for employers found to be undermining the public health efforts (details supplied). [3594/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s Living with COVID-19 Plan sets out how businesses should operate at five different levels. The Country is, at present, at Level 5 and within Level 5 people should work from home unless it is absolutely necessary to attend in person for the delivery of an essential service as listed on www.gov.ie.

I would stress, however, that, at this particular critical juncture, given the seriousness of the overall situation with COVID-19 cases across the Community and the resulting pressure on our hospital systems, it is vital that employers make provision for employees to work from home unless they are delivering an essential service and cannot work for home.

While an employer is responsible, in the first instance, for determining what work can be done remotely, employers and workers should seek to resolve any matters relating to remote working at a local level through mutual dialogue and engagement.

Where this is not possible a dispute may be referred to the State's workplace relations services for mediation or conciliation. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is providing services on both a face to face and virtual basis. Advice can be obtained from the Information & Customer Service of the WRC at Lo-call: 1890 80 80 90 or 059 9178990 or from its website www.wrc.ie.

The settlement of a dispute between an employer and an employee as to whether work can be done remotely is best resolved between the parties, as any imposition of a penalty would not resolve the dispute.

I would add that all matters concerning actions to mitigate against the spread of COVID-19 are, of course, kept under review by Government and Public Health experts.

Separately, I would like to highlight the report “Making Remote Work” which I launched recently. This is Ireland’s National Remote Work Strategy and sets out the path to making remote working a more permanent option in workplaces across Ireland after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. Its actions will be progressed over the course of 2021 and includes commitments to legislate for the right to request remote working and new rules to allow employees the right to disconnect. The strategy can be viewed on my Department's website.