Dan Boyle's infamous tweet during the Willie O'Dea saga has led to hundreds of new Twitter subscribers, according to a leading online media analyst.

Twitter has registered an approximate rise of 5% in Irish subscriptions since the Green TD's tweet.

"It has been estimated that approximately 150,000 Irish people hold Twitter accounts, and now that it has properly come into the national consciousness after Boyle's tweet it is being estimated that this will hit 300,000 by the end of this year," said Damien Mulley, who runs specialist online PR firm Mulley Communications. "In the last two weeks, there have been hundreds of new subscribers."

The increase was sparked after Boyle tweeted that he didn't have confidence in Willie O'Dea as minister for defence. O'Dea resigned later that day.

"I have seen a lot of politicians sign up lately, and then there are politicians who opened accounts back in the local elections and they let them go dormant," Mulley said. "As soon as they saw the effect of Boyle's tweet, they reactivated them very shortly afterwards. There are also people I know who have been very cynical of Twitter and who all of a sudden have decided to join."

Mulley credited RTE newscaster Anne Doyle with increasing the tweeting habits of the nation.

"The moment when Anne Doyle said on the evening news that Dan Boyle had just tweeted his controversial message, without flinching or showing any sign of embarrassment, was the moment Irish people sat up and took a bit more notice. It was then that I thought that Twitter was truly about to go mainstream."

Mulley said the tweeting revolution has also been helped along by the likes of Ryan Tubridy, a self-confessed bookaholic, joining the social networking frenzy.

"People like Tubridy, who say they spend most of their time with their heads in books and then all of a sudden join Twitter, are also bringing the idea of joining into the national consciousness. His publicity team used to look after it, and now he has taken over."