SINN FÉIN HAS spent more than €6,000 in the last week on a strategic social media campaign that outlines the basics of its new housing policy plan.

The party has started 64 individual campaigns in Facebook and Instagram, which each targeting a separate demographic of voters so that it can advertise its ambitious new housing plan to as many people as possible.

The new housing plan, announced last week, was met with some criticism from figures in Government – including Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien – who said that its ambitious targets and claims are misleading to voters.

As part of the plan, Sinn Féin promises to build 300,000 homes over five years, decrease the price of an affordable home through building properties on State-owned land, abolish the Help-To-Buy scheme and introduce a three-year rent freeze.

Other aspects of the party’s plan include a plan to abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers up to €450,000, and a promise to end long-term homelessness by 2030.

The party has claimed that its housing policy, which it will enact if it is able to successfully get into Government following the next general election, is based on real data and engagement from stakeholders such as banks, construction companies and the CSO.

In an attempt to control the narrative over its housing policy plan, which Sinn Féin says will be the deciding factor for voters in the run up to the next general election, the party intends to spend thousands of Euro for targeted social media campaigns.

According to Dublin South Central TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, TDs will also be sending out 10,000 leaflets that include an abridged version of the plan through An Post.

Meta’s Ad Library shows the party has already spent €6,117 in the last week on the strategic campaign. Eight different social media posts have been used as part of its detailed strategy.

Four videos have been created – one from party leader Mary Lou McDonald, another from finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty and two from housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin – outlining the broad notes of the plan.

Sinn Féin has launched our plan to make housing affordable and to bring homeownership back into reach for working people - https://t.co/2I5kqMyVIk

'A Home Of Your Own' is a comprehensive costed plan, the scale and ambition of which has never been set out by any other party. pic.twitter.com/v34SYJZlXu

— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) September 2, 2024

Another video of a clip from a Prime Time segment about the plan, which aired on RTÉ last week, has also been used.

A collection of social media ‘stories’ and images with slick graphics have been designed. Each post includes links that direct users to read the party’s housing policy plan on the Sinn Féin website.

On every post, Sinn Féin has paid for at least seven and up to 16 ‘filters’. Each filter targets between 100,000 to 1 million people from a specific age group and gender.

For example, some filters directly target posts to up to 100,000 younger, male voters (aged 18-35 years old) on Instagram, while other filters seek to reach 1 million older, female voters (35-65+ years old) on Facebook.

As of this week, one video of Ó Broin describing the plan has managed to reach up to 100,000 impressions on Facebook.

On the same platform, the clip from the RTÉ Prime Time segment has been seen by almost 20,000 users, all female 18-to-54-year-olds. It has since been edited to fit landscape and portrait screens and is one of the more successful videos in this campaign.

The clip includes comments made by Dr Lorcan Sirr, who is described as a “senior lecturer in housing” at TU Dublin. The comments give a review of Sinn Féin’s plan, with Sirr claiming it was “evident” that the party had done its research.

Listen to what the experts are saying about our plan to make housing affordable and to bring homeownership within reach for working people 🏠#AHomeofYourOwn #rtept pic.twitter.com/KqdJwYq5eD

— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) September 5, 2024

Yesterday The Sunday Times reported that Fianna Fáil took issue of this segment, and accused RTÉ of “bias” when it first aired on Tuesday night before a debate between the housing minister and the Sinn Féin housing spokesman.

Information from Meta’s open-source Ad Library also shows how the majority of users who have seen the promotional posts are based in Dublin, where house prices are the highest in the country.

A carousel of images, posted to Instagram and Facebook, has 16 different filters targeting a different age group and gender each.

The cost of most of these individual ads, a figure based on the number of people the advertiser intends to target, was less than €100 each.

This post has had the most success with young, female voters on Instagram aged between 18-54 years old, reaching well over 100,000 users and more than 100,000 impressions. The same post has been less successful with male voters from this age bracket.

Another post, titled ‘What The Papers Are Saying’, include excerpts from reports in The Irish Times and Irish Independent newspapers following last week’s announcement; snippets in those reports describe the party’s housing plan as “ambitious” and say it “significantly differs from the Coalition’s”.

A total of eight filters have been set up for this post, with two of them – both on Instagram – targeting young male and female voters. Across both posts, roughly 260,000 young people have been shown the material.

The Journal asked Sinn Féin how much money it intends to spend on this social media campaign, more detail about the leaflets that TDs will post to constituents and to confirm whether the figures on Meta’s Ad Library are correct.

The party have not responded by the time of publication.