Taoiseach asked to explain €1.5 million spend on online advertising
The Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has called on the Taoiseach Micheál Martin to explain himself after figures released to the Aontú political party reveal that the Department of An Taoiseach spent over €1.5 million on online advertising since he took office in June 2020.
Deputy Tóibín elaborated: "While there can be no doubt that a certain level of online advertising is necessary to keep the public informed of the Covid-19 situation, there are still questions to be answered here.
"In his reply to my question the Taoiseach has provided a breakdown on the spending and the various 'campaigns' upon which the money was spent.
"In hindsight its hard not to conclude that funds were wasted.
"A month after the Taoiseach assumed office, he spent over ten thousand euro advertising the 'Phase 4 Reopening', but we can see from the data supplied that in the months after spending money on the reopening campaign, the department were spending money on promoting the re-closing, on having a 'safe Christmas', locking down Co Donegal, etcetera.
"Moving into spring of 2021 they splashed 80,000 on the reopening of schools campaign, they then spent 12,000 on the "How It Started" public information campaign.
"Despite the massive spend, I still cannot find any information on that specific campaign on the internet - in fact many of these campaigns or spending sprees appear to have disappeared from the internet or the department website - perhaps they have been taken down because they were conflicting with one another?
"Questions do need to be answered on these spends - how much of this money went to Facebook and Google?
"Would it not have been wiser to spend it on advertising in small and local media outlets, to help keep them afloat during the pandemic? What was the 'How It Started' campaign, and what was its purpose?”
"It does seem extraordinary that at a time when many people were losing their jobs the Taoiseach's department alone was spending over €1.5 million euro on online ads.
"The spend is even more frustrating when we factor in the reality that most of the campaigns were either cancelled at a later date, or completely unsuccessful.
"The levels of lockdowns proportional to case numbers - that barely lasted a few weeks, after which the government abandoned the system altogether. The traffic lights system for international travel was likewise abandoned. The 'Living with Covid' and 'reopening' campaigns were both also abandoned as the government opted not to live with Covid, and not to reopen fully. Parts of our society are still closed or curfewed even today. This seems an utter waste of taxpayer money, and is something which warrants discussion and explanation in the Dáil", concluded Tóibín.