Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 January 2026
125. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Youth the total sums spent for each year from 2016 to 2025, inclusive of advertising, by her Department on social media or online platforms, including separately identifying payments to influencers on such platforms; and to set out the annual totals for that period to each specific platform, including but not limited to major platforms (details supplied). [4851/26]
View answerBetween 2016 and 2025, the Department of Education and Youth delivered a range of multimedia advertising and public information campaigns, of which digital and social media formed an increasingly important component. These channels were typically used alongside traditional media, such as radio and print, to maximise reach while also ensuring targeted engagement with defined audiences.
Over the last ten years, the Department of Education and Youth has increasingly used online and social media platforms to raise awareness of education-related information for specific target audiences, particularly parents and guardians. This shift reflects changes in media consumption habits, with these audiences now more likely to access information through digital and social channels. Online and social platforms also allow for greater precision in targeting and timing, ensuring that public information messages are delivered efficiently, cost-effectively, and at scale.
The accompanying table outlines total expenditure by year on advertising across online and social media platforms by the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2018 to 2025, inclusive. While the department sought to capture figures for 2016 and 2017, its media buying agency at the time, has confirmed that data for those years is no longer available.
No expenditure has been incurred to date on social media or online campaigns in 2026. In addition, it should be noted that the Department has not spent any funds on influencer marketing at any point during the period 2016 to 2026.
Campaigns in this period include the Teaching Transforms, which has been ongoing since 2018, to promote the teaching profession and encourage post-primary and third level students to apply for programmes of initial teacher education. This involves two bursts annually, one in January to advise of CAO deadline and again ahead of the CAO change of mind deadline in July. The various phases of the multimedia campaign have used a range of channels, including digital (online video and social media), radio (traditional and digital), and print (national papers and college press).
The Department has, over the last number of years, engaged in public information campaigns in respect of school reopening, to ensure widespread awareness of public health advice in the context of COVID-19. It has undertaken targeted advertising and awareness campaigns for students involved in the 2020 Calculated Grades process and the 2021 Leaving Certificate and Accredited Grades process to ensure awareness of the changed procedures under these models, necessitated by the pandemic.
Other campaigns have included school transports advertising since 2023 to let parents and guardians of school-aged children (particularly in rural Ireland) know about the Bus Eireann portal, there they can check eligibility for free school transport and or register and pay for school bus tickets. The campaign is run in two bursts, one when the portal opens and a second to inform the audience of its closing date. This is another multimedia campaign that comprises regional and national print media, radio and digital/social. Similarly, the Department has run a multimedia campaign in recent years in relevant bursts to advise of the Free School Books initiative and both primary and post-primary level.
From 2015 to 2018, the Department ran a series of multimedia campaigns on European Schools recruitment, Language Connect Awareness Initiatives and Out-of-School Education provision.
