Written answers
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Departmental Advertising
Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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557. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his expenditure on advertising, detailing the objective, duration, media platforms, advertising agency or agencies and cost of each advertising campaign, in each of the years 2015 to 2025. [37039/25]
Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department administers over 100 separate schemes and services, which affect the lives of almost every person in the State. We are committed to ensuring that members of the public are fully aware of the welfare supports and services that are available to them, and that they are notified of any scheme changes which may affect them.
Public information and advertising campaigns are an important part of our work.
Total annual spend on media advertising from 2015 to date in 2025 is outlined in the table below.
| Year | Media advertising expenditure |
|---|---|
| 2025 | €458,191.16 * |
| 2024 | €1,988,634.99 |
| 2023 | €1,462,679.07 |
| 2022 | €1,352,300.85 |
| 2021 | €2,289,774.30 |
| 2020 | €2,538,989.37 |
| 2019 | €845,761.29 |
| 2018 | €416,585.00 |
| 2017 | €839,102.66 |
| 2016 | €87,642.92 |
| 2015 | €209,198.58 |
Given the scale of public information campaigns undertaken by the Department, we are not in a position to provide a detailed breakdown by each individual campaign. My Department has delivered over 150 public information campaigns in the last 10 years, each tailored to relevant audiences. These include campaigns to promote public consultations, new schemes, significant changes to existing schemes and supports, and the promotion of ongoing supports, as well as recruitment opportunities. In addition to this, between 2020 and 2022, my Department delivered 27 campaigns related to income supports during the Covid-19 crisis.
These campaigns are carefully developed and targeted in collaboration with our media buying agency using the best mix of media formats, including national and regional print media, radio, digital and social media to ensure that the Department’s messages reach the public effectively.
In relation to the Deputy’s query about advertising agencies, between 2015 and 2025, we have worked with three Media Strategy, Planning and Buying agencies under separate contracts— Wavemaker, Spark, and Mindshare.
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