Election 2024Constituency Profile

Dublin Rathdown constituency profile: Greens will be depending on retaining a seat here

Election 2024: High-profile junior minister Neale Richmond expected to return for Fine Gael

Dublin Rathdown Constituency map
Election 2024: Former Fine Gael minister Alan Shatter is running as an Independent in Dublin Rathdown
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Pat Leahy
Thu Nov 07 2024 - 12:12

Outgoing TDs: Catherine Martin (GP), Neale Richmond (FG), Josepha Madigan (FG – retiring)

Who are the candidates running in the Dublin Rathdown constituency? Deputy Neale Richmond (FG), Deputy Catherine Martin (GP), Cllr Michael Fleming (Ind), Cllr Lettie McCarthy (Lab), Cllr Shay Brennan (FF), Cllr Maeve O’Connell (FG), Alan Shatter (Ind), Sinéad Gibney (SD), Elaine Dunne (FF), Liam Coughlan (Aon), Shaun Tracey (SF), Siomha Ó Caisaide (PBP), Garrett McCafferty (Ind/NA)

If the Greens are hopeful of retaining some other seats, they are depending on this one. The former deputy leader Catherine Martin is the party’s incumbent here and has been both a minister and a diligent minder of the constituency.

The former Fine Gael Cabinet and junior minister Josepha Madigan is retiring but high-profile junior minister Neale Richmond will be expected to return. He will be accompanied on the ticket by long-time local councillor Maeve O’Connell as Fine Gael tries – in an effort replicated around the country – to overcome the loss of a proven vote-getter and hold the two seats it won here in 2020.

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That task is made easier by the addition of a fourth seat. But the extra seat also opens the door for others – Cllr Shay Brennan (son of former TD and minister Seamus) is running again for Fianna Fáil along with Elaine Dunne, and perhaps even a return for former Fine Gael minister Alan Shatter, running now as an Independent.

Shatter has been campaigning on the need to reduce inheritance tax, an issue in a constituency that has some of the highest house prices in the country. If there is to be another centre-left seat, it will come down to a struggle between Labour’s Lettie McCarthy and the Social Democrats’ Sinéad Gibney, who also ran for the party in the European elections.

This is tough territory for Sinn Féin. Shaun Treacy had a disappointing local election here for the party, and must be an outside bet for a seat.

Possible outcome: Fine Gael (1), Green Party (1). Fianna Fáil (1), Independent (1)