Local Elections: Kerry County Council results

Seventy-seven candidates are contesting 33 seats across the six local electoral areas of Kerry County Council.

Around a third of those elected in 2019 are not on the ballot paper this time, with a number of well-known Fine Gael councillors retiring, including former Listowel poll-topper Aoife Thornton, Tralee’s Jim Finucane and Kenmare’s Patrick Connor-Scarteen. Sinn Féin is fielding 13 candidates, the highest number of any party, but vote-getters Toireasa Ferris and Robert Beasley are not seeking reelection and Pa Daly has since been elected to the Dáil.

Fianna Fáil, which held the largest number of seats (10), has seen Norma Foley move on to the Dáil and its youngest councillor, John Francis Flynn, in the Kenmare district, is retiring from politics

A lack of affordable housing for first-time buyers, planning issues, road quality, speeding and lack of footpaths for walking and cycling are being raised by voters. Immigration is to the fore on doorsteps in Killarney and Kenmare, where thousands of Ukrainian refugees occupy former tourist accommodation and GP services are under strain.

A Ukrainian candidate (Natalia Krasnenkova) and two members of the Bangladeshi community (Iqbal Mahmud and Kamaruzzaman Abdul Kadir) are seeking election in Killarney. Just 19 women are seeking election to a council that had just five female members at the end of the last term.

Killarney elected Ireland’s first Green Party councillor in Ireland in 1985 and the party is fielding six candidates this time, with Dingle GP Peadar Ó Fionnáin and Cleo Murphy in Kenmare seen as contenders. Another question is whether the three Healy-Raes repeat their astonishing over-quota first-preference performances in Killarney, Kenmare and Castleisland.

Castleisland: 4 seats

Corca Dhuibhne: 3 seats

Kenmare: 6 seats

Killarney: 7 seats

Listowel: 6 seats

Tralee: 7 seats

[ View 2019 Kerry County Council results ]