An overview of candidates in the forthcoming European elections
Dublin
This constituency consists of the four Dublin local authority areas and is currently represented by four MEPs: Eoin Ryan from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell, the Labour Party’s Proinsias De Rossa and Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin.
The number of seats will drop to three in June and all four MEPs have opted to run.
Socialist Party former deputy Joe Higgins may be a strong contender for a seat; he lost his place in the Dáil at the last election but a lot has changed since then. The Green Party has put forward Senator Déirdre de Búrca who has a reasonable high profile.
And while Fine Gael has opted to field only one candidate, current Dublin Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne will partner Ryan in the election for Fianna Fáil. Solicitor Caroline Simons will run for Libertas.
North West
Three seats are up for grabs in the North West, which covers counties Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Clare, Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal. And for the 2009 elections two extra counties, Longford, Westmeath were transferred to this constituency from the East.
Sitting MEPs, Independent Marian Harkin and Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins will run again, but Fianna Fáil’s Seán Ó Neachtain will not. Former senator Paschal Mooney had already been chosen as a candidate before Mr Ó Neachtain announced his retirement and Fianna Fáil has yet to choose his running mate.
Fine Gael will also run Senator Joe O’Reilly.
The Labour Party is to put investigative journalist Susan O’Keefe forward and Sinn Féin will run Donegal county councillor Pádraig MacLochlainn. Libertas is putting forward its leader and founder, Declan Ganley.
South
The South constituency is made up of the counties of Munster excluding Clare, which is part of North West.
Sitting MEPs Fianna Fáil’s Brian Crowley, Fine Gael’s Colm Burke and Independent Kathy Sinnott are all to contest the election again.
Green Party Senator Dan Boyle will run, as will Labour Party Senator Alan Kelly. Deputy Ned O’Keeffe has taken the second Fianna Fáil ticket.
And Fine Gael’s second candidate is Seán Kelly, former president of the GAA, who counts the opening up of Croke Park to rugby and soccer as among his greatest achievements.
Sinn Féin has put forward Kerry Councillor Toireasa Ferris, daughter of Deputy Martin Ferris. According to her web page, Ms Ferris was voted the 7th most beautiful politician in the world by Spain’s 20 Minutos newspaper in March.
A second independent will run in this constituency, Dr Alexander Stafford, a Limerick consultant who has strong views on the health system in Ireland. Libertas has not fielded a candidate in South.
East
The East is a three-seater constituency made up of the Leinster counties without Dublin, Longford or Westmeath.
Sitting MEPs Fianna Fáil’s Liam Aylward and Fine Gael’s Maireád McGuinness will run again, but Avril Doyle will not contest the election. Her Fine Gael ticket has gone to Senator John Paul Phelan.
Fianna Fáil has chosen not to run a second candidate in this constituency.
The Labour Party is to field Nessa Childers, daughter of the late president Erskine Childers and a former Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown councillor.
Two Sinn Féin candidates will run; Louth Councillor Tómas Sharkey and the party’s equality officer Kathleen Funchion who ran in the 2007 general election for the party in Carlow/Kilkenny.
Raymond O’Malley, former Irish Farmers’ Association chairman in Louth, announced he would run for Libertas in March.
