Adrian Kavanagh, First posted 2nd July 2013 with updates as new candidate nominations announced 

The seventh of my rolling blog posts in which I detailed the latest information as to candidate selections relating to the different political parties and grouping and/or candidate declarations (as in the case of the non-party grouping). As noted before, the rule of thumb here was that I added party candidates only after they have been officially selected to run for the party at a selection convention or by some other means of candidate selection. The post focuses on the Labour Party candidate selections.In the summer of 2013 the Labour Party had one hundred and twenty six City/County Councillors and eighty nine Borough/Town Councillors (twenty five of these also serving as County Councillors), meaning that the party had a total of one hundred and ninety local elected representatives at that point in time. Various defections from the party in the following months saw the number of Labour City/County Councillors fall to one hundred and eighteen, while the number of Labour Borough/Town Councillors fell to eighty four, meaning the party now has one hundred and seventy seven local representatives (avoiding the double counting of Town Councillors who also serve as County Councillors). With the party’s support levels declining since General Election 2011 as evidenced in opinion polls, Labour faces a very difficult task in trying to maintain its current level of City/County Councillors at the 2014 Local Elections, especially with the added factor of the usual anti-government swing that one associates with mid-term, or second-order, type elections such as these. While some have suggested that party losses might be offset somewhat by the addition of extra seats to Dublin (and some of the other more urbanised local authority areas), the tendency for these areas to show exceptionally high levels of volatility in electoral contests (especially relative to the more rural areas within the state) could mean that a swing against Labour is especially heightened in such areas, thus offsetting any potential bonus that might be accruing to the party arising from the increase in local authority seat numbers in these areas. Labour Party poll figures in the latter part of 2013 had put support levels for the party as not being decidedly lower than the level of support won by the party in the 2009 Local Elections (just over fourteen percent), but opinion poll support levels fell again in the first half of 2014.

One hundred and eighty nine candidates are contesting these City and County Council elections for the Labour Party (across one hundred and eight different electoral areas – 79.6% of the 137 electoral areas across the state). Fifty five of the Labour Party candidates are female (29.1%) and one hundred and thirty four (70.9%) are male. Forty eight (23.1%) of the Labour candidates at the 2009 election were female, so the party is running more female candidates in this election, even though the overall number of Labour candidates has fallen from two hundred and eight candidates at the 2009 contests.

One hundred and one of the Labour Party candidates are sitting City/County Councillors (53.4%) and a further twenty five candidates are non-dual mandate Borough/Town Councillors (sixteen of the candidates are currently serving on County and Borough/Town Councils). This means that one hundred and twenty six (66.7%) of the Labour Party candidates are currently serving in electoral office on different local authorities, whether it be on City/County Councils and/or Borough/Town Councils. Labour Party local election candidates officially selected to date include:

Dermot Looney was selected to contest Terenure-Templeogue as a Labour Party candidate, but subsequently left the party on January 7th 2014. Maria Parodi was selected to contest Pembroke-South Dock but withdrew from the local elections contest in February 2014. Brendan Leahy was selected to contest West Cork, but has instead decided to retire from politics and withdrew from the local elections contest in March 2014. Billy Kyne was selected to contest Dungarvan-Lismore, but has instead decided to retire from politics and withdrew from the local elections contest in March 2014. Leonard Hatrick was selected to contest Ardee, but seems to have withdrawn as Gavan Kierans is now down as the Labour Party candidate for this electoral area.

Thanks to Colin O’Connor, Eugene Deering, Kiris Hanafin, Dermot Lacey, Frank Fogarty, Dermot Looney, Peter Horgan, Dion Tallant, Shane Griffin, Philip Slattery, Geoff McEvoy, the Labour Women group, Damian O’Broin, Sean Ardagh, Criostoir O Faolain, Conor Reilly, Athenry Labour, James Doorley, Sinead Ahern, Seamus Ryan, Shane Hogan, Sharon Gibbons, Valerie McDermott, Aoife and Denis Landy for providing some of the information noted in this post.