Constituency: Clare

Former Clare councillor Pat Breen is seeking re-election to the Dáil for the third successive time having first sealed the support of the Clare electorate in 2002. In the 2011 election last time out, he topped the poll with 9,855 first preference votes. The father-of-two boys, he was educated in St Flannan’s College in Ennis and studied in Limerick IT at third level. He was an architectural technician before becoming a public representative. He is the chairman of the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee and has previously served as Fine Gael’s deputy spokesperson on foreign affairs and on transport. By his own account, he has worked to support “balanced infrastructural and industrial regional development”.

Richard Cahill has previously run in the 2014 European elections in the Ireland South constituency and is also standing as an independent candidate in this year’s General Election. The 49-year-old currently who lives in Sixmilebridge poled well within the county then, but he was unlikely to gain headway with 10,000 votes. Cahill has put his work with volunteers to the forefront of his campaign.

Joe Carey received the highest ever vote in Clare in the 2004 local elections and from that base, launched a successful bid for Leinster House three years later. Politics runs in the blood with his father Donal serving as Fine Gael TD for Clare and holding a number of minister of state portfolios. He was as a senator before that. He is from Clarecastle just outside Ennis and is married with one daughter and one son. He lists Shannon Airport, education, health, youth & community facilities and people with disabilities among his priorities as an elected representative.

First elected as a Clare County councillor in 2014, this will be Clare Colleran Molloy's (51) first time running in a general election. A barrister by profession, the Fianna Fáil candidate is the first Clare female that her party has run in a general election in thirteen years ago Cllr Molloy is standing on a platform which seeks to end the closure of post offices, schools, Gardaí stations in rural Ireland.

Fianna Fail’s spokesman for transport, tourism and sport, Timmy Dooley was first elected to the Dáil in 2007 when he topped the poll in Clare. In 2011, as Fianna Fail suffered heavy defeats across the country, he held onto his seat as the fourth and final TD elected in the constituency.He studied at Scariff Community College and then UCD and previously worked in sales and business management. Before he was elected to the Dáil in 2007 he served as a senator on the Administrative Panel. He is also a Fianna Fail vice president. He is married to Emer McMahon and they have two daughters.

An economic consultant based in Ennis, Sibo Hakizimana is among sixteen candidates vying for a Dáil seat in Clare.

Kilmihill-based GP Michael Harty is running under the banner of "No doctor, No village" – which aims to restore rural GPs’ income to pre-austerity levels. This is his first time running for an election. As an Independent voice in the Dáil, he believes he would not be curtailed by a party whip from speaking up about problems faced by rural Ireland

A first-time general election candidate for Fine Gael, Mary Howard was won a seat on Clare County Council seat in 2014. Daughter of late Fine Gael senator Michael Howard, Cllr Howard is an active member of a number of community organisations in her local area, including the Clare Women's Network.

Ian Lynch, formerly of Fine Gael, has stood for election before winning seats as a town councillor in Kilrush in 2009 and in 2014 as a county councillor following the disestablishment of town councils. However the 37-year-old faces a bigger task to win over the whole county’s vote.

Fianna Fáil candidate Michael McDonagh is a retired Garda and the current chairman of the GAA Clare County Board. This year will be the first time the former immigration officer will contest a general election. Mr McDonagh aims to prioritise rural development while stricter bail laws for criminals charge with serious offences. He also is campaigning for an enhanced role for post offices and fair prices for farmers.

Michael McNamara contests the election as a Labour candidate and sitting TD despite, for a time, losing the party whip last year after he voted against the sale of Aer Lingus. He was elected to the Dáil in 2011 where he won a seat ahead of Dr John Hillery, who is the son of former President Patrick Hillery, and is now the Labour TD’s father in law after Michael McNamara married Dr Hilllery’s daughter Sarah Jane last year. The Clare deputy studied law and worked as a human rights lawyer in Eastern Europe and with the United Nations in Afghanistan before returning to Ireland in 2005 to run the family farm in Scariff, in east Clare.

Noeleen Moran ran unsuccessfully for Sinn Féin in the 2014 local elections in Clare West ward after serving as the county secretary for a time. The NUIG graduate, who holds a degree in public and social policy and masters in human rights law, hails from Ballyvaughan and currently lives Ennis.

An artist from Ennis, Dermot Mulqueen is standing as an Independent candidate in the general election. A vocal Holocaust denier and currently unemployed, Mr Mulqueen, in his own words, believes the trial of non-nationals should be expedited by the courts so they can be deported quicker. He is also campaigning for direct democracy – wherein the public can submit referendums to affect State policy.

Disability campaigner Ann Norton is running as an independent candidate in the constituency and aims to be one the first women elected to Dáil Éireann from the constituency for more than a decade. Norton is one of the co-founders of the charity Clare Crusaders, a charity which provides specialist care to over 230 children. The Barefield native was elected as a local councillor to Ennis ward of the Clare County Council in 2014.

The leader of the Clare 'Says No to Water Charges' campaign and an active anti-austerity protester, Niamh O'Brien (34) is standing for the first time as a candidate in a general election. She ran unsuccessfully in the 2014 local elections, securing 731 first preference votes in Killaloe. Working as an advocate for a family law and those with debt issues, Ms O'Brien wants to see an end to the repossession of family homes, water charges, and the majority of Governmental quangos. She also wants to see all natural resources publicly run and calls for the decriminalisation of illicit drugs.

Having spent several years chasing waves, former Irish surf champion Fergal Smith has turned his attentions to chasing votes as the Green Party’s candidate in the four seat constituency. The 28-year-old is asking Clare people for their votes after competing professionally in surfing competitions from Tahiti and Hawaii. The Castlebar native has since returned to Ireland set up Moy Community Garden – a 17-acre farm near Lahinch which invites the local community to get involved. His keys issues is that he wants to create jobs in the environment sector, encourage bio-diversity on farms, ensure there is sustainable heating in all homes, and ensure 97 per cent of all schools in Ireland are signed up to the green schools programme.