Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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152. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment 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. [47730/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department uses advertising to promote a range of services, supports and initiatives for people and communities across Ireland.

As the media landscape has evolved over the past number of years, advertising expenditure has grown to address the diverse needs of different audiences, including costs associated with achieving national reach for important public messages. For example, my Department has run a significant national campaign in 2022/23, Reduce Your Use, designed to support every household in Ireland dealing with rising energy costs. In recent months, advertising expenditure has also grown to ensure that we are meeting our Irish language advertising requirements under the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021.

My Department is committed to supporting regional media, as an integral part of Ireland’s media landscape, and as a crucial tool for us to connect with communities and regional audiences across Ireland.

All Department advertising is procured via a media buying agency, and the weighting assigned to regional media is determined by best practice and securing value for money.

My Department is unable to provide the Deputy with advertising spend by title, as this is commercially sensitive information that we cannot share.

The table below sets out overall advertising/media buying expenditure in my Department over the years specified by the Deputy. The table also identifies expenditure on regional media as the information has been made available to my Department by our media agencies.

The information requested in relation to the agencies under the aegis of my Department is an operational matter for each agency. My Department will request the relevant bodies to reply directly to the Deputy with the information requested.