Meath East constituency candidates list: Sharon Tolan faces a fight to claim second Fine Gael seat

Outgoing TDs: Thomas Byrne (FF), Helen McEntee (FG), Darren O’Rourke (SF)

Who are the candidates running in the Meath East constituency?

Eilish Balfe (LAB)
Charles Patrick Bobbett (IND)
Ruadháin Bonham (GP)
Joseph Bonner (IND)
Thomas Byrne (FF)
Carolyn Fahy (PAW)
Clara McCormack (PBPS)
Helen McEntee (FG)
Jean Murray (NP)
Sivakumar Murugadoss (IND)
Caroline O’Reilly (FF)
Darren O’Rourke (SF)
Barbara Reid (LR)
Emer Tóibín (AON)
Sharon Tolan (FG)
Gillian Toole (IND)
Raymond Westlake (IND)
Maria White (SF)
Source Meath East returning officer

Sinn Féin’s Darren O’Rourke was a poll-topper in 2020, and has a running mate this time. The party had a reasonable local election in Meath, but there’s not a compelling case to see a seat for its second candidate, Laytown-based Maria White. The party will be satisfied with retaining O’Rourke’s seat.

Helen McEntee is safe, while Fine Gael’s second candidate, Sharon Tolan, is firmly coastal. If the extra seat is filled from the southern end of the constituency, that could leave the party short of votes around Ratoath, Ashbourne and Dunboyne. Much will come down to how Fine Gael performs nationally on the day, and the commuter belt will have to come out strongly for Tolan to claim a second seat.

There was surprise that Senator Sharon Keogan isn’t running, and her surrogate candidate, Gillian Toole (formerly of Fine Gael), got one of the highest votes in the county in the local elections and could sneak the final seat if Keogan can mobilise a vote for her.

Caroline O’Reilly is less likely to come into the reckoning for the final seat, while her Fianna Fáil colleague Thomas Byrne should hold. Aontú candidate Emer Tóibín, sister of party leader Peadar, who is running in the neighbouring Meath West constituency, may struggle as large parts of her base are in that constituency.

Adding the extra seat has been engineered by attaching seven electoral districts to the northern part of the constituency, taking 4,200 people back from Cavan-Monaghan, while a further 11,500 have been added from Louth on the east.

The major population centres are in the commuter belt towns, but there are swathes of farmland. The plan to house migrants in Thornton Hall, while outside the constituency, may be a flashpoint issue, especially in Ashbourne.