A month before the 2020 General Election, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin declared that a series of social media attacks by Fine Gael on his party were "counterproductive" because "Irish people do not respond well to negative campaigning." However, during the same election, it was also evident that Fine Gael were asking applicants to join their research team to design attacks on Sinn Féin as part of the selection procedure, suggesting production of negative ads would be a substantial part of the job.