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Quiet Men

Lost for words: The TDs who spoke a handful of times in the Dáil

Ten TDs have spoken fewer than four times in the Dáil in the past year.

JACKIE HEALY-RAE cost us €14,142 for every word he spoke in the Dáil chamber in 2010 – and Bertie Ahern was even worse value: he didn’t speak a single word all year.
The Irish Daily Mail has published a list of the Dáil’s ten worst contributors – and the chattiest among them have opened their mouths just three times in 2010.

The Tight-lipped Ten include:

  1. Bertie Ahern (0)
  2. Jackie Healy-Rae (1)
  3. Michael Woods (1)
  4. Christy O’Sullivan (2)
  5. Eamon Scanlon (3)
  6. Dr Rory O’Hanlon (3)
  7. Tom Kitt (3)
  8. Noel Grealish (3)
  9. Michael Fitzpatrick (3)
  10. Michael Lowry (3)

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Healy-Rae defended his speaking record, saying “Why should I go crawling to ministers with my problems across the floor of the house when I can go directly to them?”

A spokesman for Bertie Ahern said that there was a “long-standing precedent that former Taoisigh are not requested to speak in Dáil debates”.

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