Local election race hots up

The local election race is hotting up in Offaly, as the list of candidates across the three local electoral areas has been completed.

In total, some 37 candidates are declared for the 19 seats available on Offaly County Council, following the closing of nominations and the elapsing of the period for withdrawal.

The Birr electoral area has the largest field, with 15 candidates contesting the election there for six seats.

There are eleven candidates in the Tullamore area for seven seats and in Edenderry six seats will be chased by ten candidates.

Nine of the overall 37 candidates are female, with four women seeking seats in Birr, three in Tullamore and two in Edenderry.

The make up of the new council is set to change as four outgoing councillors are not contesting the June 7 poll: Fianna Fáil duo Eamon Dooley and Danny Owens and independents John Carroll and John Foley.

Two other politicians elected at the 2019 contest are not before the local electorate on this occasion either. Ken Smollen stepped down last year for health reasons, and was replaced on the council by his wife, Sandy Feehan-Smollen, who is running as an independent. And Pippa Hackett, who was elected in 2019, was replaced on the council later that year after she was elected to the Seanad by her husband, Mark, who is contesting this election.

Fianna Fáil has the largest ticket with ten candidates, four in Tullamore and three each in the other two areas.

Sinn Féin is running five candidates, two each in Tullamore and Edenderry, and one in Birr.

Fine Gael is on the same number. Somewhat surprisingly, it has only a single candidate in Tullamore, outgoing councillor Neil Feighery, with two in each of the other two areas.

There are nine non-party candidates, but strangely, none in the Edenderry area.

The Green Party has a candidate in each of the three areas, The Social Democrats are contesting two of the constituencies, Birr and Edenderry, while Independent Ireland, Aontú and the Irish Freedom Party have a single candidate in the county each.

Most political eyes will be on the performance of Sinn Féin, which performed disastrously in the 2019 local elections, failing to take a seat on the council.

However, the party is riding high in the opinion polls and a two-candidate ticket in Tullamore and Edenderry shows strong signs of confidence.