As part of my Department's Statement of Strategy, we have committed to improving our communications with all our stakeholders, most notably with communities across the country. In particular, we have prioritised raising awareness of the range of supports that are available to assist communities and those in rural Ireland.
In that respect, we have implemented a number of successful communications initiatives which have sought to deliver on these objectives. Amongst these was the Rural Opportunity roadshow and campaign run from March to May this year. Rural Opportunity was a cross-Government initiative designed to highlight the opportunities available for rural communities to access funding for projects in their areas, through the range of funding programmes provided across Government. In addition, the Department also partnered with Pobal to deliver a complementary series of workshops, entitled Helping Hands, which were undertaken at a number of regional venues over April and May. These workshops were aimed at organisations and community groups who have had difficulty unlocking funding from the various programmes and provided guidance on how to make suitable applications.
As part of my Department's overall communications strategy, and in support of initiatives such as those outlined above, the Department incurred expenditure in relation to video production and online and print advertising. Details of the costs incurred in that regard are out in the table below.
Item
|
Amount spent to date in 2019
|
TV advertising
|
Nil
|
Online advertising
|
€7,152
|
Radio advertising
|
Nil
|
Print Advertising
|
€12,087
|
Video Production and design
|
€49,759
|