Regina Doherty was elected to Meath County Council in 2009. She first ran for the Dáil, unsuccessfully, in 2007. Elected in 2011, she served as deputy director of elections in the failed 2013 referendum campaign to abolish the Seanad. A regular contributor in the Dáil and well respected in the party, she is outspoken on the issue of IRA sex abuse allegations. In 2014, she provided gardaí with a file she said contained the names of suspected sex abusers who had been moved across the Border from Northern Ireland. Originally from Glasnevin, Dublin she lives in Ratoath with her husband Declan Doherty and four children. Educated at the College of Marketing and Design, she, along with her husband, was a director of a hardware distribution company that was wound up in 2013.