Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 January 2021
656. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Justice the amount of funding allocated by her Department on the Covid-19 communications strategy since the beginning of the pandemic; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4760/21]
View answer657. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Justice the amount of funding spent by her Department on the Covid-19 communications strategy since the beginning of the pandemic; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4771/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 656 and 657 together.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic my Department has been working closely with all government departments to support the national Covid-19 effort.
At all times my Department has contributed to, and participated in, the large scale cross-Government communications programme which has been running since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has involved supporting and amplifying Government and public health messaging through both our internal and external communications channels.
Since the onset of the pandemic, my Department has had concerns about the potential for increased domestic abuse as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. Sadly these concerns were well founded as can be seen in recent figures released by An Garda Síochána and frontline domestic abuse groups.
To tackle the scourge of domestic abuse, and support the wider COVID-19 response, my Department has been running a successful communications campaign called Still Here, which aims to reassure victims of domestic abuse that support services from State agencies and the voluntary sector are still available and accessible during the Covid-19 pandemic, regardless of what level of restrictions that are in place.
To date the Department has spent €401,952.56 on the Still Here campaign.
The following revised reply was received on 25 March 2021.
Regrettably we are now aware that a mistake was made in the answer regarding the total figure for the Still Here campaign, specifically a credit note had not been accounted for correctly in our records. The figure in my original answer of €401,952.56 was incorrect and the correct total spend for the Still Here campaign so far is €397,944.36.
