Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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106. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to provide a breakdown of the advertising spend of his Department and agencies under the remit of his Department, by national media outlet and local newspaper outlet, for each of the years 2020 to 2022, in tabular form. [47732/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs uses advertising and public awareness campaigns primarily to promote essential services to citizens at home and abroad such as passport and consular services. In recent years, public awareness campaigns in relation to COVID-19 travel restrictions and Brexit have formed a significant part of campaigns.

The Department engages the services of a third-party media agency (PHD Media), retained under a cross-Government procurement process, for the purposes of advertisement placement and reaching audiences across a range of mediums including print media, digital advertising, radio, outdoor and TV. The vast majority of the Department’s spend on advertising and public awareness campaigns is conducted through this agency with the aim of maximising the audience reached.

The below figures represent the costs of advertising activity, conducted via this third party agency, that took place within each of the relevant calendar years and the approximate share of that activity directed to advertising at a national, Northern Ireland and regional level. The share of advertising spend on press/newspaper channels is also included. Advertising expenditure by the Department is applied in on a campaign basis and not directly with individual outlets. The Department is not in a position to provide a further breakdown of spend by individual outlet as this would constitute commercially sensitive information of a third party company.

2020

2021

2022