Pearse Doherty - Political Career

Political Career

A member of Sinn Féin since 1996, Doherty was a founding member of Sinn Féin Republican Youth and served on its national executive.

In the 2002 general election, Doherty ran unsuccessfully for Dáil Éireann in the Donegal South–West constituency. On 11 June 2004, he ran simultaneously in the 2004 European Parliament elections and in the local elections for Donegal County Council. He failed to win a seat in the European Parliament, but was elected to serve as a county councillor for the Glenties area of Donegal.

Doherty's second attempt to win a Dáil seat at the 2007 general election also proved unsuccessful; he received 21.2% of the first-preference vote. However, he was elected to Seanad Éireann by the Agricultural Panel on 24 July 2007.

On 12 July 2010, the High Court granted Doherty a judicial review into why the government had not held a by-election to fill the Dáil seat vacated by Fianna Fáil's Pat the Cope Gallagher when he won election to the European Parliament in June 2009. On 2 November 2010, the High Court ruled that the government had delayed unreasonably in holding the by-election. In response to the ruling, the government announced that the Donegal South–West by-election would be held on 25 November 2010. Doherty stood as the Sinn Féin candidate and won the by-election by a substantial margin, earning 39.8 percent of the first-preference vote. Upon taking his seat in the Dáil, Doherty was appointed Sinn Féin's spokesperson on Finance. However, the Dáil was dissolved on 1 February 2011, at which point Doherty had been a TD for just over 9 weeks.

During the run up to the 2011 general election of 25 February 2011, several newspapers alleged that Doherty had misled the public by stating on various Sinn Féin and Oireachtas webpages that he had formerly worked as a "civil engineer," an occupation that presumes a degree-level qualification. Doherty insisted that he had "always been upfront" about the fact that he had not completed his degree, clarified his educational credentials, and acknowledged that he had qualified as a civil engineering technician.

In the 2011 general election, Doherty topped the poll decisively in Donegal South–West, attaining 33.0 percent of the first-preference vote.

Doherty represented Sinn Féin in the Oireachtas delegation that met the Bundestag's Budgetary and European Affairs committees in Berlin in late January 2012.

Doherty put €8,000 worth of unspent travel and accommodation expenses towards hiring part-time party workers despite these expenses being supposed to be returned to the Oireachtas under rules introduced in 2010, it was revealed in June 2012. A report found that he had not breached any expense rules, and was cleared of any wrongdoing.