Revealed: Which of Donegal’s TD’s spoke the most in Dáil this year

New figures show how many times our elected representatives for Donegal have spoken in the Dáil this year so far.
An analysis of Oireachtas speeches has been carried out by KildareStreet.com, a searchable database of everything said in the Oireachtas.
The highest number for any Donegal representative was recorded as Les Ceann Comhairle Pat The Cope Gallagher TD, who is recorded as speaking 495 times on the Dáil record, but as the deputy chair of the House these are not considered speeches.
Sinn Féin Deputy Pearse Doherty was recorded as having the most amount of time on his feet, speaking 154 times.
The is followed by Independent Deputy Thomas Pringle who spoke 133 times.
Fianna Fail’s Deputy Charlie McConalogue made 65 contributions.
Minister Joe McHugh, who spent much of the year as Minister for Diaspora, is recorded as speaking 17 times.
For those representing south Donegal, Sligo and leitrim, Sinn Féin’s DEputy Martin Kenny spoke the most at 116 times. This was followed by Fine Gael’s Tony McLaughlin TD, followed by Fianna Fail’s Marc McSharry TD on 52 and Eamonn Scanlon TD with 48 times recorded.
The figures show the number of times a TD has spoken in committee discussions and Dáil debates in the last year.
Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath is the Dáil deputy who had most regularly contributed to debates, speaking 270 times to date this year.
The average number of contributions for a TD is 85.