Helen McEntee (29) won a Dáil seat in the 2013 byelection following the death of her father, Shane McEntee. Steeped in Fine Gael politics, she is from Castletown, Co Meath. Graduating from DCU in 2007, she worked briefly in a Citibank subsidiary. She later completed a masters in journalism and communications and worked with her father in Leinster House, first in opposition and then when he was appointed minister of state.

An occasional speaker in the Dáil, she spent a lot of her first year concentrating on constituency work. Last year she was one of five Oireachtas members in a random audit of 22, who repaid expenses (€1,675) deemed ineligible. She described it as “human error” and said she had underestimated the paperwork involved.