Third seat up for grabs in North West

DUBLIN North West used to be a Fianna Fáil stronghold with the constituency providing the party with two Government ministers a decade ago.

That probably seems an awful long time ago to Cllr Paul McAuliffe who’s aiming to get FF back in the game in this slightly expanded constituency.

However, he’s not fancied by Paddy Power bookmakers who have him as a 9/1 shot and their odds predict it’ll be Cllr Noel Rock at 4/6 making a comeback for his Fine Gael party.

You have to go back two decades to find a FG representative in the area and while the party is expected to lose seats elsewhere, this one could be a gain for them.

Labour won two seats here last time out in 2011 but Roisin Shortall has swapped red for the purple of the Social Democrats

 That leaves her former running mate, John Lyons, with a job on his hands to keep the red flag flying.

Paddy Power reckon Shortall will romp home easily at 1/33 and likeable Lyons still has a chance of holding his seat at 2/1, but he’ll be depending on transfers.

Dessie Ellis is another popular candidate predicted to easily hold his Sinn Féin seat at 1/25.

However, the question will be if he can pull in running mate Cathleen Carney Boud who’s a 9/4 shot. 

Outsiders in the Dublin North West race are Andrew Keegan (AAA-PBP) at 14/1 while Jimmy Dignam (WP), Caroline Conroy (GP), Cormac McKay (DDI-NCM) and Bernie Hughes (Ind) are all ranked 50/1.