Mr Liam Hyland has been a consistent poll-topper for Fianna Fail in both domestic and European elections.
A farmer from Ballacolla, Co Laois, he was first elected to the Dail in 1981. The following year he supported Mr Charles Haughey during one of the early moves to oust him as Fianna Fail leader.
In 1983, however, he defected from the ranks of Haughey supporters over the bugging and telephone-tapping scandal, a move which restricted his chances of promotion within the party for a number of years.
Under Mr Albert Reynolds, however, he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture in 1992. He then topped the poll in the Leinster constituency in the 1994 European Parliament elections and is tipped to do so again on this occasion.
Born in 1933, he is married with five sons and a daughter. He is also a former member of the RTE Authority and was the first Fianna Fail chairman of Laois County Council.
He is a member of the European Parliament's agriculture and rural development and rules of procedure committees.