Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The military authorities have advised that there has been ongoing Tri-Service recruitment advertising activity and this has contributed to increased awareness of the Reserve Defence Force (RDF). The cost of such advertising campaigns in 2025 (as of 8 October) is as follows:

• Total advertising spend (excl. fees): €1,814,267.65 + VAT, Social media spend: €209,150.38 + VAT.

The objective of these campaigns is to raise awareness, generate interest in Tri-Service recruitment and achieve high quality application activity through targeted digital channels. These campaigns are run year around with additional focus on specific recruitment competitions, as appropriate, and are designed to reach broad but targeted audience segments. Social media advertising is mostly concentrated across Meta (Facebook/Instagram), LinkedIn and Snapchat and CTR (Click-Through Rate) figure performance aligns with industry benchmarks for recruitment activity on these platforms.

The military authorities have further advised that, while there has not been stand-alone Reserve Defence Force campaign expenditure to date, an RDF-focused advertisement campaign is expected to be introduced early in 2026.