Carlow-Kilkenny Election 2024: Who are the candidates and who could make gains? Everything you need to know before voting

Current TDs (five seats) John McGuinness (FF), Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF), Malcolm Noonan (GP), John Paul Phelan (FG) and the fifth seat currently sits vacant as sitting TD Kathleen Funchion (SF) was elected to the European Parliament in June leaving her seat empty.

As it currently stands Fianna Fáil have two seats with John McGuinness as their Kilkenny based TD and Jennifer Murnane O'Connor as their Carlow based TD. Both are hoping to retain their seats in the upcoming general election.

The remaining three seats are currently one Fine Gael (Kilkenny's John Paul Phelan), one Green Party (Kilkenny's Malcolm Noonan) and one empty seat that was recently vacated by Sinn Féin's Kathleen Funchion as she took up her position as an MEP following June's European elections.

The Green Party will be hoping to hold on to their one seat with Malcolm Noonan running for the Dáil again. Fine Gael and Sinn Féin on the other hand are running all new candidates with Fine Gael's John Paul Phelan hanging up his political boots.

In an attempt to keep and build on that Dáil seat that is due to be vacated by John Paul, Fine Gael chose two male Kilkenny candidates and one female candidate from Carlow.

Fianna Fáil are also aiming to hold the majority in the constituency as they are also running three candidates. Similarly to Fine Gael, they have chosen two male Kilkenny candidates and one female candidate from Carlow.

Sinn Féin are hoping to retain their Carlow-Kilkenny Dáil seat that has been vacated by Kathleen Funchion by running one Carlow based candidate and one Kilkenny candidate. The party has held a seat in the constituency since Ms Funchion was elected to the Dáil in 2016.

Outside of the main political parties, there are a number of Independent candidates running in the constituency, along with one Labour, one Social Democrat, one People Before Profit, one Aontú and one Irish Freedom Party.

Interestingly, so far all the Carlow based candidates running in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency are women.

It will also be interesting to see if more Carlow based candidates are elected this time around. Currently only one out of the five seats are held by a Carlow based TD.

Who could make gains here? There seems to be a battle between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to see who will gain the majority in the constituency with both parties hoping to get three candidates elected each.

But with so many candidates from a wide variety of political parties battling it out for only five seats, it will be hard for any party to hold a large majority.

What issues are under the spotlight? As with most of the country, lack of housing and tackling vacancy and dereliction is a topic that is featuring heavily on doorsteps across Carlow and Kilkenny.

Similarly, immigration, another hot topic both in Carlow, Kilkenny and nationwide, has recently become an issue that has divided people in the constituency with a number of anti-immigration protests taking place in the last year.

As a large amount of Carlow and Kilkenny's population live in rural areas, rural issues will always be raised. For instance, potholes and the condition of roads, the lack of transport links in rural areas and also farming issues.

A particular issue under the spotlight in Carlow is the lack of a women's refuge. Carlow is still one of nine counties without a women's refuge. A campaign for a women's refuge in Carlow started in 2016, yet it still has not been delivered.

The Carlow Women's Refuge campaigners have now received a commitment from Government that a refuge will be established in 2025.

However, following previous broken promises, the activists say they will keep campaigning until they finally see the doors to a Carlow women's refuge open.

In Kilkenny, delays to the construction of the Northern Ring Road extension is a hot topic in the county.

Candidates: Catherine Callaghan (FG)

Cllr Peter 'Chap' Cleere (FF)

Orla Donohoe (I.F.P)

Cllr Michael Doyle (FG)

Cllr David Fitzgerald (FG)

Áine Gladney Knox (SF)

Tom Healy (Ind)

John McGuinness (FF)*

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (FF)*

Natasha Newsome Drennan (SF)

Malcolm Noonan (GP)*