My Department incurs expenditure on public advertisements in connection with a wide range of educational programmes and schemes including, staff appointments in the education sector; invitations to attend local hearings; invitations to forward submissions on education-related schemes/projects; invitations to tender for school building projects.
In accordance with a Government decision in July 2008 my Department took steps to reduce expenditure on advertising. Expenditure in 2007 was €816,000 and was reduced to €340,000 in 2008. With ongoing efforts to reduce advertising costs to a minimum the total amount spent by my Department on advertising in 2009 and to date in 2010 is as follows:
2009 — €172,322;
2010 — € 117, 729 (to date).
Expenditure was not incurred on public relations promotions/activities during the period in question.