Department of Taoiseach spends €16.8m on Covid adverts

THE Department of the Taoiseach has spent over €16.8m on advertising across a range of media sectors on various Covid-19 information campaigns.

In a written Dáil reply to Sinn Féin TD Sorca Clarke, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the largest amount of €8.3m was last year spent in the broadcasting sector. In a major shot in the arm for the print media industry, the Taoiseach confirmed that a further €6.1m was spent on ‘advertising in publications’ in 2020.

An additional €1.13m was spent on ‘online banner adverts’, while a further €247,092 was spent on ‘social media advertising’.

The Taoiseach confirmed that some of the online platforms paid to participate in the campaigns include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. The Taoiseach confirmed that there was a spend of €366,059 on advertising for ‘Dublin/Limerick high incidence awareness’.

The figures show that €1.77m was spent under the heading of ‘community call’, while the advertising campaign on Donegal in Level 3 cost €177,824.

The advertising campaigns around various reopenings account for a sizeable portion of the spend – the spend on Phase 1 of the reopening cost €1.17m across all platforms.

The advertising spend on Phase 2 of the reopening cost €892,545, while the spend on Phase 3 cost €1.2m.

In his written Dáil reply, Mr Martin said: “Since March of 2020, my Department has co-ordinated communications for the whole-of-government response to the pandemic. This necessitated expenditure on a broad range of targeted public messaging across a range of different information campaigns.”

He stated that the overall communications strategy for Covid-19 “is based on a co-ordinated response that ensures maximum clarity for citizens, businesses and our wider community”.

“This aligns with both World Health Organisation and European Centre for Disease Control advice, both of which emphasise the importance of ensuring the general public is aware of the seriousness of the Covid-19 outbreak” to prevent the virus spreading further, he said.