Outgoing TDs: Catherine Martin (GP), Neale Richmond (FG), Josepha Madigan (FG – retiring)
Who are the candidates running in the Dublin Rathdown constituency?
- Shay Brennan (FF)
- Liam Coughlan (AON)
- Kevin Daly (IND)
- Elaine Dunne (FF)
- Michael Fleming (IND)
- Sinéad Gibney (SD)
- Catherine Martin (GP)
- Garrett McCafferty (NP)
- Lettie McCarthy (LAB)
- Conor Murphy (IND)
- Síomha Ní Aonghusa (PBPS)
- Maeve O’Connell (FG)
- Neale Richmond (FG)
- Alan Shatter (IND)
- Shaun Tracey (SF)
- Source Dublin Rathdown returning officer
If the Greens are hopeful of retaining some other seats, they are depending on this one. The former deputy leader Catherine Martin is the party’s incumbent here and has been both a minister and a diligent minder of the constituency.
The former Fine Gael Cabinet and junior minister Josepha Madigan is retiring but high-profile junior minister Neale Richmond will be expected to return. He will be accompanied on the ticket by long-time local councillor Maeve O’Connell as Fine Gael tries – in an effort replicated around the country – to overcome the loss of a proven vote-getter and hold the two seats it won here in 2020.
That task is made easier by the addition of a fourth seat. But the extra seat also opens the door for others – Cllr Shay Brennan (son of former TD and minister Seamus) is running again for Fianna Fáil along with Elaine Dunne, and perhaps even a return for former Fine Gael minister Alan Shatter, running now as an Independent.
Shatter has been campaigning on the need to reduce inheritance tax, an issue in a constituency that has some of the highest house prices in the country. A stronger prospect for an independent seat might be the Michael Fleming, who took over 3,600 votes in the local election in the Glencullen-Sandyford ward but also has a reach into the Stillorgan side of the constituency through his butcher and food shop in Kilmacud. He’s exactly the sort of independent that could do well everywhere.
If there is to be another centre-left seat, it will come down to a struggle between Labour’s Lettie McCarthy and the Social Democrats’ Sinéad Gibney, who also ran for the party in the European elections.
This is tough territory for Sinn Féin. Shaun Treacy had a disappointing local election here for the party, and must be an outside bet for a seat.
Possible outcome: Fine Gael (1), Green Party (1). Fianna Fáil (1), Independent (1)
