1. Pearse Daniel Doherty was born on 6 July 1977 and is an Irish Sinn Fein politician who has been a Teachta Dala for the Donegal constituency since the 2016 general election, and previously a TD for the Donegal South-West constituency from 2010 to 2016.
Pearse Doherty previously served as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel from 2007 to 2010.
Pearse Daniel Doherty was born in Glasgow on 6 July 1977, the son of Irish parents.
Pearse Doherty enrolled in a civil engineering degree course at Dublin Institute of Technology in 1996, but dropped out after 2 years to take on a job in the industry.
At a court hearing it was alleged that Pearse Doherty had abused a Garda, though it was argued Pearse Doherty's comment was the consequence of a "simple misunderstanding" and was not in any way intended to offend the Garda.
Pearse Doherty was convicted, but was given the benefit of the Probation Act in lieu of a criminal record.
Pearse Doherty completed two years of his civil engineering course, earning a national certificate that entitled him to work as a civil engineering technician.
Pearse Doherty then left third-level education to pursue a job in that field.
Pearse Doherty later resumed his studies by enrolling in another civil engineering course at Letterkenny Institute of Technology, but dropped out in order to run for Dail Eireann in the 2002 general election.
Pearse Doherty failed to win a seat in the European Parliament, but was elected to Donegal County Council for the Glenties local electoral area.
Pearse Doherty stood as the Sinn Fein candidate and won the by-election by a substantial margin, earning 39.8 percent of the first-preference vote.
On taking his seat in the Dail, Pearse Doherty was appointed Sinn Fein's spokesperson on Finance.
However, the Dail was dissolved on 1 February 2011, at which point Pearse Doherty had been a TD for just over nine weeks.
Shortly before the 2011 general election, several newspapers alleged that Pearse Doherty had misled the public by stating on various Sinn Fein and Oireachtas webpages that he had formerly worked as a "civil engineer", an occupation that presumes a degree-level qualification.
Pearse 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 and not a civil engineer.
In that election Pearse Doherty topped the poll decisively in Donegal South-West, attaining 14,262 first-preference votes.
Pearse Doherty represented Sinn Fein in the Oireachtas delegation that met the Bundestag's Budgetary and European Affairs committees in Berlin in late January 2012.
At the 2016 general election, after a redrawing of constituency boundaries, Pearse Doherty was elected to the new five-seater Donegal constituency on the 8th count with 10,300 votes.
On 29 May 2018, Pearse Doherty was appointed Deputy Leader of Sinn Fein.
Pearse Doherty topped the poll at the 2020 general election with 21,044 first-preference votes, and was appointed leader of Sinn Fein's negotiations team.
On 16 June 2022, Pearse Doherty clashed with Tanaiste Leo Varadkar in the Dail.
Pearse Doherty attacked Varadkar for being "out of touch" and brought up Varadkar's legal issues with the DPP.
At the 2024 general election, Pearse Doherty was re-elected to the Dail on the first count.
Pearse Doherty received the highest number of first preference votes in the country, at 18,898.
Pearse Doherty is married to Roisin, a school teacher from County Monaghan.