Department of Health records show that Minister Stephen Donnelly queried why he was not being mentioned in tweets posted on the department's Twitter feed.

An analysis of the Twitter feed completed for the Minister in mid-January found that no references were made to him, whereas other individuals and State agencies had been mentioned 78 times in the department's tweets.

Kate Shanahan, Head of Journalism and Senior Lecturer at TU Dublin, and Barry McLoughlin, Senior Communications Consultant at The Communications Clinic, joined us to discuss whether the way politicians use social media is useful.