Understaffed Defence Forces spend €680k on recruitment advertising

The recruitment marketing spend yielded applications from 9,729 people to sign up for the Army, Naval Service, or Air Corps. File photo

The Defence Forces have shelled out more than €680,000 on recruitment advertising with social media companies and other media over the past year.

The military used Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn as part of their enlistment campaigns as they tried to plug gaps in their personnel power. Spending on social media came to €263,814 with a further €139,900 spent on traditional print titles, according to records released under Freedom of Information.