Constituency: Meath East

Meath County councillor Joe Bonner is running as a candidate under the banner of the Independent Alliance. First elected in 2004, he was retained his council seat in third successive elections – topping the poll in 2014 in his local ward of Ashbourne. He is an active member of his local community and has been involved with a number projects over the last ten years. Twice he has unsuccessfully run for a Dáil Éireann seat.

Having previously served as a TD for Meath East between 2007 and 2011, Thomas Byrne (38) is now a Fianna Fáil senator. He failed to regain his Dáil seat during the constituency’s 2013 by-election following the death of TD Shane McEntee. While in Dáil Éireann, Senator Byrne sat on a number of Oireachtas committees. Key issues for him this election include an increase in the minimum wage, a solution to mortgage arrears, and the ‘undergrounding’ of the cross-border pylon network known as the North South interconnector. Currently he is Fianna Fáil’s Seanad Spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform.

TD for Meath East Regina Doherty secured her seat at the 2011 general election with 20.3 pc of the first preference vote. A member of Meath County Council from 2009 to 2011, she was an unsuccessful Fine Gael candidate for Meath East in 2007. Following claims the IRA was involved in covering up sexually abuse by its members, Deputy Doherty announced she had given Gardaí a list with the names of a number of alleged abusers. Prior to taking her Dáil seat, Ms Doherty worked in the IT sector – though in 2013, the mother-of-four’s consultancy company went into liquidation with debts of €280,000. She is a member of the current Oireachtas committees for Health, Finance and the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. She is among a dozen Fine Gael TDs who believe women should have the right to a termination in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

This will be Ben Gilroy’s first time contesting a general election following his failed 2013 by-election bid. The Direct Democracy Ireland candidate polled at 6.5 pc and came in fourth, some 10,000 votes behind eventually winner Helen McEntee, daughter of the constituency’s recently deceased TD Shane McEntee. DDI’s party leader until 2014, Mr Gilroy wants to see the next Government support a policy of mortgage write downs and work towards ending repossession orders against family homes.

As an openly gay candidate Labour's Dominic Hannigan (50) made history when he took up his seat following the 2011 general election. In doing so the became one of the first openly gay people to be elected to Dáil Éireann, a distinction he shares with Dublin North-West's John Lyons. Deputy Hannigan was elected to the Meath East constituency having previously served as a senator from 2007 to 2011 and councillor from 2004 to 2007. He topped the poll in Meath East with 21 pc of first preference votes. Since 2012 he has been a member of the Joint Committee on EU Affairs. Mr Hannigan was born in Drogheda, County Louth. The Labour party politician was also the first TD to enter into a same-sex marriage – although he had to travel to London to do it as Ireland had yet to hold the same-sex marriage referendum.

Independent candidate Sharon Keogan has been a councillor in Meath since 2014. A restaurant and pub owner, she runs a community support office which advises on matters such housing, medical cards, disability grants and planning. A former member of the Fianna Fail national executive, Cllr Keogan left the party after failing to be selected to run in the 2011 general election in Meath East. Alongside a campaign focused on rural regeneration, she passionately opposes wind farms and pylons in Meath – believing they represent a danger to the areas tourism industry.

A long-standing member of the Workers' Party, Seamus McDonagh has actively fought against bin charges, water charges, the property tax, and a host of other austerity measures. Standing as candidate for Meath East this general election, Mr McDonagh’s platform calls for more social housing, rent control, public ownership over water enshrine in law, and free and safe access to abortions anywhere in Ireland. A former steel fixer, he has run unsuccessfully for both local and national office on a number of occasions.

The youngest female TD in the Dáil, Helen McEntee is only one of two serving deputies under the age of 30. The 29-year-old was elected to Dáil Eireann in a 2013 by-election following the death of her father, then Minister of State for Food, Horticulture and Food Safety Shane McEntee. She is the second youngest TD after her Fine Gael colleague Simon Harris TD (28). Deputy McEntee is part of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications. She is also a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht. Before becoming a public representative, she worked in the Department of Agriculture. Ms McEntee believes her generation has “'borne the brunt of a recession that we did not cause” and has spoken in the Dáil about emigration, job creation, and sought support for younger drivers. She is also a strong advocate for improved roads and telecommunications infrastructure.

Green Party candidate for Meath East Seán O'Buachalla is calling for a public transport system which extends throughout the greater Dublin region and links the capital with Navan via rail. Energy and local planning issues also rate highly for the green candidate, who previously ran unsuccessfully in Meath East’s 2013 by-election. He polled at 1.74 pc of first preference votes and was eliminated after the first count. The Dunboyne native is a fluent Irish speaker works as a development officer with youth clubs.

The sole Social Democrats candidate running in Meath, Aisling O'Neill (42) first ran for public office as an Independent candidate in the 2014 local elections. An emergency department nurse by profession, she has been involved with the ‘Meath Abolish Irish Water’ campaign since it was founded. Abolishing the controversial utility is among her top priorities.

Sinn Féin’s Darren O’Rourke (35) has been a local councilor in Meath since 2011. A former policy advisor to the party’s Health Spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Cllr O’Rourke has previously worked as a medical scientist at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. A strong advocate for the shifting the tax burden to those earning over €100,000, the 35-year-old favours scraping water charges and property tax on family homes. Included in his campaign is a pledge to work towards securing “significant investment” in housing and health. Prior to his election as a local councilor, Mr O’Rourke unsuccessfully contested the Meath East 2013 by-election.

First-time general election candidate Sarah Tyrrell (25) is the RENUA national membership co-ordinator. The Dundalk-native says she wants to represent single parents who, until now, have had no presence in Dáil Éireann. Ms Tyrrell wants to work towards a better deal for single parent families, addressing the key issues of childcare costs, rising rent and high taxes. She is a former chairperson of Global Bridges Ireland, a registered charity and student-led sustainable development organisation.