GE2024...What happens a seat if a county councillor is elected?

Ten sitting Meath county councillors are running in Friday's General Election, which means that if one or more of them are elected, their seat on the local authority will later have to be filled.

There are four running in Meath West - Fianná Fáil's Aisling Dempsey, Fine Gael's Linda Nelson Murray, Ronan Moore of the Social Democrats, and Noel French, Independent.

In Meath East, six councillors are running for Leinster House - Joe Bonner (Independent), Caroline O'Reilly (Fianna Fáil), Sharon Tolan (Fine Gael), Gillian Toole (Independent), and Maria Whyte (Sinn Fein).

In the case of a councillor representing a political party getting elected, the party will then have to select a replacement, normally through a convention. This often happens after resignations or in the case of passings, such as the untimely sudden death of Damien O'Reilly which saw his cousin, Caroline, succeed to a Fianna Fáil seat in the Ratoath electoral last year.

On election, Independent councillors have to nominate a successor and have their name placed in an envelope with Meath County Council for safekeeping in the event of their vacating their seat, or in event of their passing while in office.