The Road Safety Authority has set out more than €2.5 million in public relations expenditure since 2020, after the disclosure of internal files showing how PR advisers warned of “tricky” TDs before a hearing at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee and a potentially “hostile” reception.
The advice from Drury Communications prompted a Freedom of Information request to the RSA for records on its public relations spending since the start of the decade.
The RSA, under pressure because of rising road deaths, is chaired by former Progressive Democrats Minister of State Liz O’Donnell.
In its FoI reply, the RSA said it paid some €1.71 million to Drury for its work from the start of 2020 until September 2024. Such spending was exclusive of value-added tax at 23 per cent. Drury was first engaged by the RSA after a competitive public tender process in 2016 and again in 2021. The company had no comment on the release of its RSA fees, saying it was a client matter.
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The RSA said: “The agency works in support of the RSA’s in-house communication team and its services delivered include, but are not limited to, communications strategy, media relations and press office, preparation and event management support on up to 20 events per annum (including press briefings, photocalls, conferences, workshops, and roadshows), social media content creation and management and public affairs support.”
The expenditure in each year was: €303,870 in 2020, €313,176 in 2021, €496,009 in 2022, €381,982 in 2023, and €219,013 between January and September this year. According to the RSA, the 2022 spending rose as a result of post-Covid restrictions being lifted and increased in-person events and PR activity. That included a return of the RSA’s annual international conference.
The RSA went on to say it routes additional third-party communications expenditure through the PR agency “for administrative ease” but that the money was not for fees incurred by it or accruing to it. The third-party spending was “in relation to venue hire for events, photographers, videography, design, translation, printing etc.
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Such expenditure came to a total of €813,345. The spending in each year was: €171,097 in 2020, €97,878 in 2021, €242,609 in 2022, €202,607 in 2023 and €99,154 between January and September year. The increased 2022 costs were again linked to the lifting of post-Covid restrictions.
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