Tóibín questions government spending on advertising

The HSE continued to advertise cancer screening throughout the pandemic, despite none being available, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín pointed out in the Dail yesterday (Tuesday).

He raised some questions about online spending by the government and asked what controls are in place to monitor government spending on advertising.

He asked if there was another is there another agenda at play. “We’re all familiar with the Cervical Check scandal, and the amount of coverage that has received internationally. But strangely if you google the words ‘cervical check Ireland’, you’ll note that the first page of results omits any mention of any scandal or any news reports – government ads have buried the news articles.

“It is strange that there are just enough ads to push all news items to the second page of results, precisely enough to remove the scandal from the first page”.

Deputy Toibin pointed out that under the last government a decision was made that all online advertising for various Departments would go through the Department of An Taoiseach. “Is this still the practice and what controls are in place to monitor government.”

He asked for a report/breakdown on the spending of taxpayer funds on advertising by the government.

“I think we do need to have controls on online spending of taxpayer money.

“Also, it is worth noting that HSE ads for cancer screening, cervical check and breast check continued throughout this pandemic despite the fact that a decision had been made with government involvement, to stop screening services. Why did the HSE continue to spend money advertising a service that was not available? I would urge the Taoiseach to furnish this house with a report on government online advertising to date this year, providing a clear breakdown on where taxpayer money was spent.”

The Taoiseach said he was “perplexed” by the question but confirmed that he would “check it out and get back to Deputy Tóibín”.