Meath is a county for which "commuterism" has become a catchphrase. Population changes which began before the 2002 election have since resulted in demographic transformation.
It is an area bursting at the seams, based on a population increase from some 100,000 to more than 160,000, with all the commuting, housing, school, childcare and infrastructural difficulties that has created.
The five-seater constituency has now been split into two constituencies, Meath West and Meath East, each with three seats.
Meath West now runs out from Navan with a little lump of Westmeath added on, part of the Coole council area. Indications are that the population changes are such that the boundaries of the two new constituencies will have to change again after this election.
Despite the changes, however, Meath West still has a substantial rural population where a canvass cannot be rushed. In the major towns of Trim, Navan and Kells, the door-to-door "hello and goodbye" may be what is expected, but in the rural areas, invites for dinner or a cup of tea remain a tradition and are not taken lightly.
All three sitting TDs within its boundaries, two Fianna Fáil and one Fine Gael, are running again. One Fianna Fáil and one Fine Gael seat seem secure, with the fight on for the third seat.
Poll-topping Minister Noel Dempsey, a TD since 1987, will run from his Trim stronghold with party colleague Kells-based Johnny Brady, first elected in 1997.
Vote management is crucial for Fianna Fáil to hold its two seats, although Meath has always been good for the party in vote distribution, helped in no small measure by Dempsey, a noted strategist.
This time, with constituency changes, Brady has lost some of his old base around Nobber and Kells, while the Westmeath addition of Coole is being well canvassed for the slightly fewer than 6,000 potential votes it garners.
To keep its two seats, one view of the ideal situation for Fianna Fáil is for Dempsey to poll about 8,000 first-preference votes and Brady close to 7,000. In the last election with five seats, Dempsey topped the poll with 11,534 first preferences and just under 8,500 for his party colleague.
Fine Gael took the surprising decision to run three candidates, including former county football captain Graham Geraghty and sitting TD, the energetic Damien English, who became the youngest deputy of the 29th Dáil in 2002 when elected at just 24.
The third candidate is Trim councillor and solicitor Peter Higgins, who has held a county council seat since 1999. The party is aiming for two seats. While at the outset Geraghty was viewed as a non-starter, his campaign has since picked up. Opinions vary with the suggestion that he could edge out Brady for the third seat, but if there is an upset, Sinn Féin's Joe Reilly has a fighting chance.
The division of the old five-seater constituency has had the greatest impact on Reilly, who was tipped to take a seat had it remained unchanged. The boundary changes have split his vote.
Labour is running Kells-based town councillor Brian Collins, who works for the Institute of Public Administration, while the Green Party candidate is Navan town councillor Brian Flanagan, who is on his first general election outing.
