COUNCIL PROFILE/Dublin City Council: With 52 seats, Dublin City Council is the largest local authority in the State. That makes elections for the council somewhat unpredictable; all the more so this year due to a combination of factors, including the Government's uncertain popularity rating, controversy surrounding the office of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and the abolition of the dual mandate.
The ban on TDs holding a seat on the local authority has claimed high-profile candidates from the three main political parties, but arguably worst hit has been Fianna Fáil. The party has lost six poll-toppers in their respective wards in the 1999 elections: Noel Ahern, Martin Brady, Ivor Callely, Seán Haughey, Pat Carey and Eoin Ryan.
Similar uncertainty has been created in Fine Gael, where Gay Mitchell, Richard Bruton, Frances Fitzgerald and Joe Doyle - a poll-topper in the Pembroke ward in 1999 - have all been dropped from the ticket.
With the loss of experienced hands, both parties are using the election as a means of grooming young candidates, principally with the general election in mind. Fine Gael boasts that more than a third of its candidates in Dublin city and county are aged under 40.
The Labour Party, meanwhile, is hoping to consolidate the 14 seats it won five years ago, a result which enabled it to form a voting pact with Fianna Fáil to control the council.
There is little appetite among Labour supporters to form a similar pact after the election, and party candidates have been actively encouraging voters to transfer to the Greens and Fine Gael.
Among the young guns being blooded in the elections are Fianna Fáil's Eibhlin Byrne, a protege of Ivor Callely in Clontarf; Fine Gael's Lucinda Creighton, a 24-year-old former youth party activist; and Labour's Oisín Quinn, a son of businessman Lochlann Quinn and nephew of former party leader, Ruairí Quinn.
Sinn Féin, which is putting up 16 candidates, is expected to poll strongly. But whether that will translate into seats, especially in three-seater wards, remains to be seen.
The party is campaigning principally on national issues, and while it expected to garner some of the protest vote against the Government it may also suffer losses due to the ongoing controversy surrounding the release of the killers of Jerry McCabe, and continuing republican violence in the North.
Rival parties claim Sinn Féin peaked in opinion polls six months ago and will not fare as well as expected on June 11th.
The Green Party, which has 12 candidates, hopes to at least double its representation on the council to four seats. Transfers will be crucial, particularly in five-seater wards where the party missed out narrowly five years ago.
The Progressive Democrats, which failed to win a seat on the council in 1999, is pinning its hopes principally on Wendy Hederman, a solicitor and daughter of the former lord mayor, Carmencita Hederman.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has been lending his weight to her campaign in Pembroke ward, where Fine Gael is vulnerable to dropping a seat.
As for the Independents, Tony Gregory steps down as a councillor after 25 years to concentrate on his work in the Dáil. But he has a ready-made replacement in Mick Rafferty, a high-profile community activist, who needs just one of the two quotas Gregory earned on the first count in 1999 to sail home.
Issues among voters range from housing, traffic, planning and crime - especially the apparent increase in anti-social behaviour and street violence - to the most local of issues, including the proliferation of dog dirt on the city's pavements.
A backlash against the Government is as likely in Dublin as any other area, and Maurice Ahern, the Taoiseach's brother and the most senior Fianna Fáil member of the council, admitted party canvassers had been getting some "stick" from locals. However, he said, "some of those complaining would never be Fianna Fáil voters in the first place".
A further uncertainty in the election might be described as the Royston factor.
The latest incumbent of the office of Lord Mayor, Mr Royston Brady, has been credited with raising the profile of the council. But at a cost, according to his detractors. Mr Brady's description of fellow councillors as "clowns", "pathetic" and "a waste of space" - he subsequently apologised - has left a bitter aftertaste in the local authority. Some members believe it may even affect the turnout on June 11th.
Mr Brady himself is stepping down from the council to contest the European Parliament elections.
Despite an electorate of just under 350,000, the council could be determined by just a few Dublin votes.
