Over €1m spent on advertising campaign to encourage school attendance

A spokesperson of the Department of Education and Youth said tackling the school attendance issue was a key priority for education minister Hildegarde Naughton.

An advertising campaign aimed at improving school attendance has cost over €1m in the seven months since it was introduced, the Department for Education and Youth has confirmed.

The campaign, entitled ‘Every School Day is a New Day’, was launched late last September by Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) and the Department of Education.

It was launched as the latest data available showed that one in five children are missing more than 20 days of the school year.

In a reply to a parliamentary question, education minister Hildegarde Naughton said the campaign had cost a total of €1,103,013.51.

Phase one of the project consisted of the creation of adverts, and associated production and distribution costs amounting to €204,032.28, and the purchase of advertising space across all media costing €356,200.19.

Phase two covered the creation of radio advertisements, and associated production and distribution costs, costing €51,849.12; and the purchase of advertising space across all media, costing €490,931.92.

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said while there was no question that children’s school attendance needed to improve, all evidence showed that increasing supports from an early age had the most impact on children.

“In a year when the Government tried to cut SNA provision to children, it is shocking that they would spend over €1m on a campaign on school attendance,” he said.

“If you have a child in a mental health crisis, a billboard won’t get them into schools. Investment in Camhs and in-school supports is the solution.

“We want to see all children supported to attend school. We want to see parents supported to bring their children to school. But that needs a holistic approach, not ads on billboards. I have parents contacting me whose children have no school place for next September — this ad is pure insulting to them.” 

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A spokesperson of the Department of Education and Youth said tackling the school attendance issue was a key priority for Ms Naughton.

“School attendance is important to support children and young people’s achievement, wellbeing, and wider development. Regular engaged school attendance is a strong predictor of successful educational outcomes,” the spokesperson said.

“In late September 2025, as part of TESS’s five-year plan, a national multimedia school attendance campaign was launched.

“The target audience was parents and guardians of schoolgoing children, and the aim of the multimedia campaign was to raise awareness of the severity of casual non-attendance across all children, and encourage greater school attendance.”