Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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130. To ask the Taoiseach the amount his Department and associated agencies have spent on social media advertising since the beginning of January 2021 until 12 June 2021. [32826/21]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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A tabular breakdown of the figures requested by the Deputy is below.

Social Media advertising has been a central part of the public information campaigns for Covid-19, and since March 2020 my Department has co-ordinated the communications strategy for the whole-of-government response to the pandemic that ensures maximum clarity for citizens, businesses and our wider community.

The strategy ensures that citizens have all of the information they need in relation to Covid-19, to protect the most vulnerable in our communities, themselves and their families and the health care system.

The strategy aligns with both World Health Organisation (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.

This necessitates expenditure on a broad range of targeted public messaging across a range of different information campaigns using national and local radio, national and regional newspapers, and social media platforms. The centralised approach adopted is helping to ensure effectiveness of advertising spend and consistency and amplification of the public health messaging across the various public awareness campaigns and to those hard to reach audiences.

The public information campaigns play a vital role in communicating the various strands of the pandemic. All platforms are utilised with some campaigns tailored for different audiences using specific channels.

There have been 48 campaigns to date, and each campaign was advertised using a combination of National Press, Regional Press, Radio, Digital Display, Social Media, TV and Online Video.

In the 26 campaigns which used Social media advertising, the total number of impressions across all campaigns was 115,520,006. This translates to an average of 4,443,077, with a high of 16,119,670 impressions for the Publication of the Roadmap campaign.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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131. To ask the Taoiseach the amount his Department has spent on social media content production since the beginning of January 2021 until 12 June 2021. [32827/21]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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A tabular breakdown of the figures requested by the Deputy is below.

Social Media advertising has been a central part of the public information campaigns for Covid-19 and since March 2020, my Department has co-ordinated the communications strategy for the whole-of-government response to the pandemic that ensures maximum clarity for citizens, businesses and our wider community.

The strategy ensures that citizens have all of the information they need in relation to Covid-19, to protect the most vulnerable in our communities, themselves and their families and the health care system.

The strategy aligns with both World Health Organisation (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.

This necessitates expenditure on a broad range of targeted public messaging across a range of different information campaigns using national and local radio, national and regional newspapers, and social media platforms. The centralised approach adopted is helping to ensure effectiveness of advertising spend and consistency and amplification of the public health messaging across the various public awareness campaigns and to those hard to reach audiences.

The public information campaigns play a vital role in communicating the various strands of the pandemic. All platforms are utilised with some campaigns tailored for different audiences using specific channels.

There have been 48 campaigns to date, and each campaign was advertised using a combination of National Press, Regional Press, Radio, Digital Display, Social Media, TV and Online Video.

In the 26 campaigns which used Social media advertising, the total number of impressions across all campaigns was 115,520,006. This translates to an average of 4,443,077, with a high of 16,119,670 impressions for the Publication of the Roadmap campaign.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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132. To ask the Taoiseach the amount his Department and all associated agencies have spent on public relations consultancy costs since January 2021. [32828/21]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There has been no expenditure by my Department or by the National Economic and Social Development Office, which is an agency under the aegis of my Department, on public relations consultancy costs since January 2021.

The Citizens’ Assembly, which is staffed by my Department, has engaged Q4 Public Relations to provide media liaison and communication services incurring costs of €5,127.38 to date in 2021. Its remit includes raising public awareness of the Assembly’s work and supporting communication and media outreach regarding seven online meetings of the Assembly between October 2020 and April 2021. Q4 also provide a press office service to engage with the media to respond to queries on the work of the Assembly.