Election 2024Constituency Profile

Limerick City constituency profile: Biggest issue is concern over services at University Hospital Limerick

Election 2024: Several of the candidates also contested the race to become Ireland’s first directly elected mayor

Limerick City Constituency map
Election 2024: In the Limerick City constituency, as in elsewhere, the need for social and affordable housing is high on the agenda
Cormac McQuinn's picture
Cormac McQuinn
Thu Nov 07 2024 - 12:25

Outgoing TDs: Maurice Quinlivan (SF), Willie O’Dea (FF), Kieran O’Donnell (FG), Brian Leddin (GP)

Who are the candidates running in the Limerick City constituency? Deputy Maurice Quinlivan (SF), Deputy Willie O’Dea (FF), Deputy Kieran O’Donnell (FG), Senator Maria Byrne (FG), Deputy Brian Leddin (GP), Cllr Frankie Daly (Ind), Cllr Conor Sheehan (Lab), Cllr Elisa O’Donovan (SD), Cllr Sarah Beasley (Aon), Dee Ryan (FF), Ruairí Fahy (PBP-Sol), Melanie Cleary (Ind/Mid West Hospital Campaign), Esther Aherne (II), Dean Quinn (Ind/NA)

To a certain extent the race to fill the Limerick city’s four Dáil seats is a re-run of the mayoral election in June.

About half the candidates that contested that race to become Ireland’s first directly elected mayor have also put their names forward on this occasion. They include incumbent Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan – who came fifth in the mayoral race – and Fianna Fáil’s Dee Ryan, who came third after a strong performance during the campaign. Quinlivan should do better in the general election, though he may not top the poll as he did in 2020 given Sinn Féin’s recent slip in the polls.

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Willie O’Dea of Fianna Fáil and junior minister Kieran O’Donnell of Fine Gael may be vying for that perch this time.

Green Party TD Brian Leddin will have a battle on his hands to keep his seat. He secured 2,303 first preferences in the mayoral election. This is lower than the vote he got in the 2020 general election.

His support levels in the mayoral contest are believed to have been dented by the presence in the race by the eventual winner, Independent John Moran. Some people who voted for Moran may well cast their ballots for Leddin in the general election.

Snapping at Leddin’s heels will be Ryan and councillors Frankie Daly (Independent), Sarah Beasley (Aontú), Conor Sheehan (Labour) and Elisa O’Donovan (Social Democrats). They all got more first-preference votes than the Green Party TD in the mayoral race.

Another mayoral election candidate, People Before Profit’s Ruairí Fahy, is also contesting.

The mayoral election was for a different job and included voters from rural parts of Limerick who will not be voting in this Dáil constituency, so not too many conclusions can be drawn from it in terms of the allocation of Dáil seats. The general election race will have its own dynamic.

Perhaps the biggest issue in the constituency is concern over the services at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), particularly the overcrowded emergency department. One of the candidates, Melanie Cleary, of the Mid West Hospital Campaign, is the mother of Eve Cleary who died aged 21 in 2019 after being discharged from the hospital. Melanie Cleary previously told RTÉ she wants to put the issues at the hospital “at the top of the national agenda – we have been ignored for far too long”.

As in many other urban constituencies, the need for social and affordable housing is high on the agenda. The cost of living is still a big issue being raised by the public. While Quinlivan, O’Dea and O’Donnell all seem set to return to the Dáil, it is going to be a dogfight for the last seat.

Possible outcome: Fianna Fáil (1), Fine Gael (1), Sinn Féin (1), Independent (1)