Adrian Kavanagh, 26th June 2015

Figure 1: Percentage of younger candidates (aged between 21-35) by Dail constituency (2016 General Election)

In a similar vein to an earlier post relating to 2011 General Election candidates and a similar post relating to younger candidates contesting the 2014 City and County Council elections, this page seeks to list the names, and party affiliations, of all the candidates for the 2016 General Election whose ages fall in the 21-35 years age category. (Candidates whose ages fall in the 18-30 years category will be denoted by a * – all other candidates listed here fall into the 31-35 year age category, apart from those cases where it is not clear whether the candidates falls into the 21-30 or 31-35 groupings.)

Please note that this is an incomplete list due to difficulties in accessing age information in a large number of cases. Given the difficulties involved in getting age details for some candidates, the likelihood is that I will miss out on some names that should be included here, but I will do my best to ensure this list is as accurate as possible. If you note any glaring absences (especially if you are one of the candidates that should be listed below, or else are incorrectly listed below), please feel free to comment below or to Tweet me at @AdrianKavanagh or else to email me at adrian.p.kavanagh@nuim.ie instead.

I have been compiling this list since June 2015. From the get-go, this list did not include candidates who might run or who are highly likely to run, but just includes party candidates who had been officially selected to run at conventions or independent candidates who have publicly declared their intention to contest the upcoming general election.

At present (22nd February 2016), I can currently account for eighty five candidates in the 21-35 age category (15.4% of the total number of general election candidates) – fifty two (61.2%) of the candidates in this group are male while thirty three (38.8%) of the candidates in this group are female. Forty three of these candidates are in the 21-30 age category (7.8% of the total number of candidates).

A higher proportion of all female candidates (20.2%) currently fall into the 21-35 age category than the proportion/percentage of all male candidates (13.4%) that do.

Political parties, to date, have selected 66 candidates (17.1% of the total number of political party candidates), who are in the 21-35 year-old age category, including 35 male candidates (13.6% of all the male party candidates) and 31 female candidates (23.8% of all the female party candidates).

Currently, the proportion of younger candidates in the Dublin constituencies (16.7% of the total number of candidates) is slightly higher than the proportion of younger candidates in the rest of the state (14.6% of the total number of candidates), based on those who I have accounted for to date. Outside of Dublin, there is a  higher level of younger candidates at present in the regions of Munster (16.4% and Connacht-Ulster (15.0%) than there is in (rest of) Leinster (12.6%). (It is important to note that this is allowing for the fact that not all of the younger candidates in these regions may have been identified yet.)

As far as I can make out, the youngest selected/declared general election candidates so far are Alexander Cosgrave (Green Party, Limerick County), Ciara Leonardi Roche (Anti Austerity Alliance, Cork East), Cormac Manning (Green Party, Cork North-West), Claire Kerrane (Sinn Fein, Roscommon-Galway), Declan Burke (Independent, Dublin South-West), Kerry Guinan (Independent, Dublin Central), Lorna Bogue (Green Party, Cork South-Central), Michael Dillon (Independent, Tipperary), Tim Jackson (Independent, Donegal), Sarah Tyrell (Renua Ireland, Meath East), Julie O’Leary (Fine Gael, Cork North-Central), Aoife O’Connell (Direct Democracy Ireland, Cavan-Monaghan), Stephanie Healy (Direct Democracy Ireland, Longford-Westmeath) and Adrienne Wallce (People Before Profit, Carlow-Kilkenny). (The oldest candidate is 85-year old Cllr. Ian McGarvey, who is contesting Donegal as an independent candidate.)

In terms of political parties/groupings, out of the candidates listed below:

• 11 are Fine Gael candidates – 12.5% of the total number of Fine Gael candidates
• 8 are Fianna Fail candidates – 11.3% of the total number of Fianna Fail candidates
• 11 are Sinn Fein candidates – 22.0% of the total number of Sinn Fein candidates
• 3 are Labour Party candidates – 8.3% of the total number of Labour Party candidates
• 10 are Green Party candidates – 25.0% of the total number of Green Party candidates
• 2 are Workers Party candidate – 40.0% of the total number of Workers Party candidates
• 3 are Renua Ireland candidates – 11.5% of the total number of Renua Ireland candidates
• 5 are Social Democrats candidates – 35.7% of the total number of Social Democrats candidates
• 7 are Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit candidates – 22.6% of the total number of Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit candidates
• 4 are Direct Democracy Ireland candidates – 22.2% of the total number of Direct Democracy Ireland candidates
• 1 is a Fis Nua candidate – 50.0% of the total number of Fis Nua candidate(s)
• 19 are Independent/Non-Party candidates – 11.5% of the total number of Independent/Non-Party candidates

The list of candidates in the younger age category (aged 21-35) accounted for to date includes:

As also illustrated by Figure 1 above, the constituencies with the largest numbers of younger candidates at present are Meath East, Cork North-West, Dublin West, Dublin Central and Galway West, with these four constituencies having four younger candidates (i.e. in the 21-35 age cohort). Younger candidates account for over 30% of the total number of candidates in Meath East, Cork North-West and Dublin West. The constituencies with the highest number of candidates in the 21-30 age group are Cavan-Monaghan (with four candidates), followed by Wicklow and Cork South-Central (with three candidates each).

Although candidate nominations have now officially closed, the details on this page will still be updated, as and when I come across details of younger candidates who are not currently on the list above.