GE2024 Election Once AgainSINN FÉIN AND its candidates significantly outspent other Irish parties in the weeks leading up to the general election announcement, an analysis by The Journal has found.
Figures available from major social media platforms reveal that the party has spent more than triple the amount of money on online ads than its closest rival since the end of the summer.
The data comes from the online ad libraries of Meta, X and Google, which were created to provide transparency over who funds political advertisements online.
The Journal has compiled figures on how much each party and any of its elected representatives have spent on political ads between Monday 25 August and Sunday 3 November.
The end of August marked the date that parties prepared to return from the summer break to begin their round of pre-Dáil think-ins.
They show that Sinn Féin has spent almost €66,500 on ads in that time, compared to around €14,000 by Fine Gael, over €9,000 by Fianna Fáil, almost €4,000 by Labour, more than €2,600 by the Social Democrats, roughly €1,200 by Independent Ireland, and less than €500 by each of Aontú and People Before Profit.
Most parties have only advertised on Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) since the end of August, except Sinn Féin and Fine Gael, who have run ads on Google platforms.
Many candidates also spent additional sums worth less than €100, though Meta does not list expenditure lower than that amount, with totals of less than €100 usually referring to ads that ran for a short period of time or which were only targeted to a small number of people.
Weekly figures from ad libraries and social media posts also show how each party and their candidates have geared up for the announcement of the 29 November election, and give an insight into how they are likely to campaign in the weeks ahead.
For months, Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Simon Harris maintained that the Government would run its full term and that an election would not be held until March.
We may never know whether Harris believed this or if he always secretly wanted a pre-Christmas election, but if his party’s online ad spend was anything to go by, he may have really been planning for a spring election initially.
The party was initially slow out of the traps when it came to targeted ads and getting its message across online, and has only begun pushing its message since the Budget was delivered on 1 October.
Figures from Meta’s ad library show that between 25 August and 3 November, Fine Gael spent €14,010 on online ads.
However, between 25 August and 17 September, it spent less than €100.
Only 11 of the party’s representatives bought ads during the same three-week period, most of which also cost less than €100; the exception was Senator Aisling Dolan, who paid €226 for ads during that timeframe.
However, the return of the Dáil on 18 September brought an immediate change, with Fine Gael spending €813 during the week of 16-22 September.
In the six full weeks afterwards, up to last Sunday, the party spent €13,197 in total on ads, including €10,417 between 28 October and 3 November which was the highest ad spend on Meta by anyone in Ireland over those seven days.
A total of 41 Fine Gael candidates (comprising TDs, Senators and councillors) have also spent a collective €6,650 on Meta ads between them between 25 August and 3 November.
Several candidates spent additional sums worth less than €100.
At the time of writing, Fine Gael is currently running ten ads on Facebook and Instagram, which feature individual videos of the party’s candidates in the upcoming election with Taoiseach Simon Harris.
Each of the videos is captioned with the name of a candidate and says that they have been “working hard for you and your family”.
Similar posts have been posted to Fine Gael’s account on X, where the party has also sought to get across what it is doing for ordinary people, though it has not recently paid for any ads on the platform.
Since the end of September, the party has posted almost daily about how it is “putting more money back in your pocket” through measures introduced in Budget 2025.
The party has posted about those measures far more than any other topic, including announcements of its candidates, since the start of last month.
On 1 October, the day the Budget was delivered, Fine Gael’s account on X sent almost 30 posts about how the Budget would give money back to people, including measures for parents, families, renters, farmers, older people, businesses, and people with disabilities.
Each post was accompanied by colourful graphics detailing the amount each person would get and what measures allowed them to get the money.
The Fine Gael account posted about these measures, including as graphics, around 40 more times until the end of October, with messages from individual TDs and a repeat of the different graphics featuring almost every day during the month.
Since the start of November, it has emphasised this message even further, with three or four posts a day explaining what Budget measures kicked in this week and videos of Ministers and TDs explaining multiple ways how Fine Gael “is putting money back in your pocket”.
In addition to this, Fine Gael has also spent between €400 and €500 this week on two Google ads emphasising its record.
A sponsored search post for the party headed “Fine Gael – A New Energy” said that the party was looking to “secure your future”, while a second YouTube video ad featuring Taoiseach Simon Harris again described ways that the party was putting money back in people’s pockets.
On TikTok (where political advertising is not allowed), the party has likewise emphasised how it has given money to ordinary people – with the YouTube ad of Simon Harris from this week originally posted to Fine Gael’s TikTok account on Budget Day.
The account has posted around 30 videos on TikTok since 1 October, similar to its X output, also outlining what Budget payments people are getting.
However, it has also shared multiple videos attacking Sinn Féin’s handling over recent controversies involving party staffers and politicians, as well as others which have referenced the nitrates derogation as something that helps farmers.
In contrast to its Coalition partner, Fianna Fáil was paying for ads and pushing its message well before the Dáil returned in mid-September.
Although the party’s ad spend dipped slightly before the Budget was delivered, it has likewise spent thousands during October in the weeks leading up to the election announcement.
Figures from Meta’s ad library show that between 25 August and 3 November, Fianna Fáil spent €9,288 in online ads.
In addition, 50 of the party’s TDs, Senators and councillors have spent €10,593 on ads over the same period.
That figure includes €2,294 spent by Tánaiste and party leader Micheál Martin last week, 28 October to 3 November, which was the highest amount paid by any individual politician in Ireland over the last ten weeks.
At the time of writing, Fianna Fáil was running 121 ads, including 43 ads about how the party is supporting families with the rising cost of living through Budget measures that will be delivered in November and December.
The other 78 ads call for the public to give party candidates a number one preference in the election, varying between 22 candidates who each ran multiple ads.
Notably, these ads started running before the election date was announced on Wednesday or the Dáil was dissolved yesterday.
Each of the candidate ads emphasised candidates’ priorities like “delivery on housing”, “cost of living measures”, the “Just Transition” to a green economy and “key infrastucture projects”, “regional investment”.
Although most of those priorities varied between the different candidates, all of them mention housing delivery and the cost of living.
In the last week of October, Fianna Fáil also ran more than 450 ads on Facebook and Instagram that emphasised cost-of-living measures like the rent tax credit, the abolition of certain hospital charges, double welfare payments and free schoolbooks.
Like Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil has only paid for ads on Meta’s platforms Facebook and Instagram in the run-up to the election announcement.
On X, the party has likewise posted about housing delivery and cost-of-living measures (including those delivered in the Budget), though not in the same volume as Fine Gael.
Its focus on housing has featured most on X, with a post to Fianna Fáil’s account every day or two emphasising how many houses the Government has built or changes in planning legislation to facilitate the delivery of more homes.
However, videos on the party’s official TikTok account since the start of October have been more in line with Fine Gael’s output.
Like its coalition partner, Fianna Fáil has used the video platform to emphasise what it has provided to citizens through Budget giveaways or healthcare measures like Hormone Replacement Therapy for women, with only a small number of videos about housing.
As mentioned above, Sinn Féin has far outspent its rivals in the weeks leading up to the election announcement, and it’s the only party that has advertised on multiple platforms.
The vast majority of expenditure has been on ads by the party itself, rather than those by individual representatives or candidates.
In the ten weeks between 25 August and 3 November, the party spent €64,256 on Facebook and Instagram ads, according to figures from Meta’s ad library.
In addition to this, Google data also shows it has also paid between €8,000 and €9,000 since 29 August for a sponsored search post advertising its alternative housing plan to “make rent afforable” and to increase home-ownership.
However, just 27 Sinn Féin representatives have paid for online ads over the past ten weeks, the vast majority of them costing less than €100 (though around €2,000 was paid on ads that cost more than that).
At the time of writing, the party is running 28 ads on Facebook and Instagram, all of which are pushing Sinn Féin’s alternative healthcare plan called “A Prescription for Change”.
It describes the document as the “most significant and comprehensive plan to transform healthcare in Ireland that has ever been put together by any political party”.
“Our plan will transform your experience of our health service. It will significantly reduce costs, ensure you have access to the best quality healthcare when you need it and end wasteful spending,” the posts add.
During October, Sinn Féin also posted several ads on Meta’s platforms that featured what seemed to be pre-election promises on housing, the cost of living and childcare.
These included pledges to students to invest in student accommodation and scrap student fees, claims that it would scrap USC for certain workers, introduce €10 a day childcare for all, and to “deliver the biggest social and affordable build in the history of the state”.
But just as it campaigned on its own cost-of-living pledges, Sinn Féin also paid for ads attacking the Government for making things more expensive, particularly claims that Ireland’s petrol and diesel prices are now the highest in Europe.
Several other ads in October also attacked the Government for wasting money, including claims that Simon Harris spent €500,000 using a private jet for meetings in Europe, and an attack of a plan to introduce pouches for phones in schools at a cost of €9 million.
On X, the Sinn Féin party account’s output in recent weeks has been more sporadic and has not centred on a single message or theme.
It has promoted its own talking points, similar to those contained in its Meta ads, while also attacking the Government about specific measures and more generally.
If there is one common thread through its posts since the start of October, it is a message calling for a change of Government, with numerous posts saying things like “100 years of the same two parties is enough” or that “People have had enough”of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
Sinn Féin’s TikTok output has emphasised this even more since the beginning of last month.
Almost all of its videos since then have involved attacks on the Government, whether for its handling of the war in Gaza or the housing crisis, record homeless figures, or the controversy over the Dáil bike shed.
More than half of the videos posted on Sinn Féin’s official TikTok account since 1 October reference the Government parties, either within the video or in a caption.
The junior Coalition party has barely advertised at all after the European elections at the start of June, with individual party members instead spending money on online ads.
According to Meta’s ad library, 20 Green Party members have advertised on Facebook and Instagram between 25 August and 3 November.
In almost all cases, the ads cost less than €100, with the exceptions being €132 spent by junior public expenditure minister Ossian Smyth last week, and €119 spent by Senator Róisín Garvey in the first week of October.
The Green Party page has paid for two ads this week (a time-frame not included in this article) which give an indication of its election messaging.
Unsurprisingly, the party has promoted its record on climate action in the ads, but is also pushing housing (“for more homes in the right places”) and family issues (“for children and families across Ireland”).
A video of party leader Roderic O’Gorman claims that the party has overseen a reduction in carbon emissions, the passing of the Nature Restoration Law, and cheaper public transport while halving the cost of childcare.
It has also posted frequently about these policies on X in recent weeks, when its most consistent messaging has been around the climate crisis and extreme weather events.
The party has also emphasised these talking points on TikTok, though its messaging there since the start of October has also included mentions of expanding women’s healthcare and re-invogorating Dublin city centre.
The expenditure of other parties and independents between 25 August and 3 November: November varied, though all only advertised on Meta platforms during that time.
The Labour Party spent €11,498; on top of this, 13 of the party’s candidates spent €3,906 between them (though many also bought ads worth less than €100).
On social media, its key messages have been around providing more housing and solidarity with Gaza and Palestinians, as well as more infrequent posts about the climate crisis and public transport.
The Social Democrats spent €7,058; in addition, 19 of its candidates spent €2,657 between them, with many also buying ads for less than €100.
It has likewise emphasised the war in Gaza and the housing crisis in its social media messaging since the start of October, though it has also messaged around crime and rejuvinating Dublin city centre.
People Before Profit spent €1,756; nine candidates also spent €386 between them, as well as those who spent less than €100 on ads.
The party’s main social media talking points have been based on attacking the Government over everything from its record on housing, the impact of rising cost of living on ordinary workers, and the war in Gaza.
Aontú spent €442 on ads, all of which were paid for between 28 October and 3 November. One candidate also spent less than €100 on ads in four separate weeks.
Like People Before Profit, most of its social media messaging has been negative about the Government, with focus on the coalition’s use of public money, and social issues like crime, care, healthcare and housing.
Uniquely among the parties which had a represenatation in the previous Dáil, it has used images generated by Artificial Intelligence as part of its social media output.
Independent Ireland paid Meta €3,602 for ads on Facebook and Instagram, as well as three candidates who spent €1,210 between them and a fourth who spent less than €100 on one occasion.
The party’s social media output has been more infrequent than its rivals, and it has mainly been focused on criticism of issues like immigration, climate measures and the Goverment’s use of public money.
Digital ad libraries are a requirement for major social media platforms under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a European law that came into full effect in February this year to address illegal content, transparency around advertising and misinformation online.
The DSA also requires platforms to explain who pays for political ads, which people were targeted by them, why they were targeted, and how much was paid for them.
This means that ad libraries show how political parties use targeted ads which are aimed at specific age groups, genders or particular areas – including during elections.
The ad libraries reveal each of these things about Ireland’s political parties, though there are no spending limits for parties using digital ad campaigns.
There are limits for how much each candidate can spend on their campaign, which doesn’t apply to just digital campaigns, but to the candidate’s whole overall campaign.
These limits will come into play now that an election has been called, but won’t have applied to online ads before this (such as those which were posted up to the end of last week).
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