Title: Database of Parliamentary Speeches in Ireland, 1919-2013,
Abstract: We present a database of parliamentary debates that contains the complete
record of parliamentary speeches from Dáil Éireann, the lower house and
principal chamber of the Irish parliament, from 1919 to 2013. In addition, the
database contains background information on all TDs (Teachta Dála, members of
parliament), such as their party affiliations, constituencies and office
positions. The current version of the database includes close to 4.5 million
speeches from 1,178 TDs. The speeches were downloaded from the official
parliament website and further processed and parsed with a Python script.
Background information on TDs was collected from the member database of the
parliament website. Data on cabinet positions (ministers and junior ministers)
was collected from the official website of the government. A record linkage
algorithm and human coders were used to match TDs and ministers.