Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 30 Jan 2002

Vol. 547 No. 1

Written Answers. - Departmental Expenditure.

Michael Ring

Ceist:

114 Mr. Ring asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount which was spent in her Department from June 1997 to December 2001 for media purposes and advertising; if she will categorise where the money was spent; the amount spent on a year to year basis; and the money which was spent on videos, whether for promotional, educational or advertising purposes. [2077/02]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ms Harney)

My Department spent a total of 1,267,407 – £998,164 – for media and advertising purposes in the period June 1997 to December 2001. Of this, a sum of 119,353 – £93,998 – was spent on TV advertising and 73,200 – £57,650 – was spent on radio advertising. The remainder, 1,074,853 – £846,516 – was spent on advertising in the national and provincial papers. This is broken down on an annual basis as follows:

		£
1997 (June to December)	67,968	53,529
1998	164,380	129,460
1999	186,996	147,271
2000	392,570	309,174
2001	455,493	358,730

The vast majority of the media spend is from the Department's advertising subhead. This covers spending on such areas as statutory advertising and notification of legislation in the national press, the Department's entries in the Eircom telephone book and special or once-off advertising such as the notification of publication of annual reports and strategy statements, notices to importers, tariff suspension schemes as well as photography and exhibition materials and the advertising campaign to publicise the introduction of the national minimum wage.

In addition to the foregoing, the offices of the Department, the Companies Registration Office, the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs, the Labour Court, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Competition Authority, spent a combined total of 1,164,278 – £916,944 – in the period concerned. Furthermore, the Department has been involved in producing seven videos for training-educational purposes, involving an additional spend of £58,772 – 74,625 – in the same period.