Mayo (Dáil constituency)

Mayo is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the or Oireachtas (the Irish parliament). The constituency elects 4 deputies (Teachtaí Dála, commonly known as TDs) on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

Mayo
Dáil constituency
Location of Mayo within Ireland
Major settlements	Ballina Ballinrobe Castlebar Claremorris Westport
Current constituency
Created	1997
Seats	5 (1997–2016) 4 (2016–) 5 (Next–)
TDs	Dara Calleary (FF)   Rose Conway-Walsh (SF)   Alan Dillon (FG)   Michael Ring (FG)
Local government area	County Mayo
Created from	Mayo East Mayo West
EP constituency	Midlands–North-West

History

At the 2002 general election Fine Gael suffered its worst electoral performance ever, losing 23 seats nationally, a figure larger than expected and with its overall vote down 5%. Enda Kenny came close to losing his seat and even went so far as to prepare a concession speech. In the end, he won the third seat in the five-seat constituency.

At the 2011 general election, this was the constituency of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who became Taoiseach after the election. Fine Gael won four out of five seats in Mayo at that election. This was the first time any party won four seats in any five-seat Dáíl constituency; the last time any party had won four seats in a Dáil constituency was in the era of six- and seven-seat constituencies.

Boundaries

The constituency includes Castlebar, Westport and Ballina. Mayo is the largest Dáil constituency in Ireland by area.

The Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017 defines the current constituency as:^[1]

"The county of Mayo, except the part thereof which is comprised in the constituency of Galway West."

The constituency was used for the first time at the 1997 general election and replaced the former constituencies of Mayo East and Mayo West.

In the Constituency Review Report 2023, the Electoral Commission recommended that the electoral divisions of Mayo that were in the Galway West constituency should be transferred to the Mayo constituency, thereby making the constituency comprise the entire county of Mayo. It was also allocated an extra seat to become a five-seat constituency.^[2]

For the next general election, the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023 defines the constituency as:^[3]

"The county of Mayo."

Changes to the Mayo constituency

Years	TDs	Boundaries	Notes
1997–2016	5	The county of Mayo.[4][5][6][7]	Created from Mayo East and Mayo West.
2016–2020	4	The county of Mayo, except the part in the constituency of Galway West.[8][1]	Electoral divisions of Ballinrobe, Cong, Dalgan, Houndswood, Kilcommon, Kilmaine, Neale, Shrule, in the former Rural District of Ballinrobe, and Garrymore in the former Rural District of Claremorris, transferred to Galway West.[9]
2020–	4		Electoral divisions of Ballinrobe, Kilcommon and Garrymore transferred from Galway West.[10]

TDs

Teachtaí Dála (TDs) for Mayo 1997–
Key to parties   FF = Fianna Fáil   FG = Fine Gael   Ind = Independent   SF = Sinn Féin
Dáil	Election	Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)
28th	1997[11]		Beverley Flynn (FF)		Tom Moffatt (FF)		Enda Kenny (FG)		Michael Ring (FG)		Jim Higgins (FG)
29th	2002[12]				John Carty (FF)						Jerry Cowley (Ind)
30th	2007[13][14]		Beverley Flynn (Ind)		Dara Calleary (FF)						John O'Mahony (FG)
31st	2011[15]		Michelle Mulherin (FG)
32nd	2016[16]		Lisa Chambers (FF)							4 seats from 2016
33rd	2020[17]		Rose Conway-Walsh (SF)				Alan Dillon (FG)

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

Elections

^ *: Outgoing TD

2020 general election

2020 general election: Mayo^[17][18][19]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Fine Gael	Michael Ring[*]	23.0	14,796
	Sinn Féin	Rose Conway-Walsh	22.7	14,633
	Fianna Fáil	Dara Calleary[*]	14.2	9,163	9,377	9,671	9,874	10,429	11,130	13,636
	Fine Gael	Alan Dillon	8.1	5,198	5,823	5,944	6,115	6,553	7,648	10,977
	Fianna Fáil	Lisa Chambers[*]	9.9	6,373	6,647	6,855	7,062	7,375	8,363	8,911
	Fine Gael	Michelle Mulherin	8.4	5,435	5,929	6,045	6,285	6,596	7,427
	Green	Saoirse McHugh	6.5	4,177	4,321	4,630	5,385	6,036
	Aontú	Paul Lawless	4.0	2,574	2,662	2,854	3,375
	Solidarity–PBP	Joe Daly[lower-alpha 1]	1.1	721	751	1,072
	Independent	Gerry Loftus	0.9	574	595	670
	Labour	Kamal Uddin	0.4	255	272	308
	Irish Freedom	Daithí Ó Fallamháin	0.4	246	252	279
	Independent	Gráinne de Barra	0.1	84	89	119
	Independent	Stephen Manning	0.1	65	68	82
	Independent	Seán Forkin	0.1	59	63	82
Electorate: 98,165   Valid: 64,353   Spoilt: 553   Quota: 12,871   Turnout: 64,906 (66.1%)

1. Daly was a member of People Before Profit.

2016 general election

2016 general election: Mayo^[20][21][16]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Fine Gael	Enda Kenny[*]	20.9	13,318
	Fine Gael	Michael Ring[*]	17.7	11,275	11,533	11,534	11,545	11,558	11,567	11,613	12,034	13,149
	Fianna Fáil	Dara Calleary[*]	14.8	9,402	9,417	9,419	9,432	9,441	9,450	9,495	9,933	10,425	12,150
	Fianna Fáil	Lisa Chambers	12.9	8,231	8,265	8,266	8,280	8,296	8,307	8,354	8,718	9,503	11,686
	Fine Gael	Michelle Mulherin[*]	12.3	7,841	8,084	8,088	8,094	8,123	8,131	8,182	8,496	8,900	9,593
	Sinn Féin	Rose Conway-Walsh	10.1	6,414	6,423	6,423	6,445	6,453	6,485	6,548	7,022	7,853
	Independent	Jerry Cowley	5.5	3,479	3,495	3,504	3,513	3,523	3,553	3,668	4,375
	Renua	Michael Farrington	2.5	1,574	1,579	1,582	1,590	1,600	1,608	1,659
	Green	Margaret Sheehan	1.0	629	631	632	636	651	665	680
	AAA–PBP	Tom Moran	0.9	576	577	582	587	597	626	664
	Independent	George O'Malley	0.4	262	263	263	276	284	301
	Independent	Peter Jordan	0.3	176	176	181	189	192	197
	Independent	Stephen Manning	0.2	157	158	159	166	174
	Independent	Mohammad Kamal Uddin	0.2	144	146	149	150
	Independent	Gerry O'Boyle	0.2	126	127	130
	Independent	Seán Forkin	0.1	42	42
Electorate: 92,958   Valid: 63,646   Spoilt: 600   Quota: 12,730   Turnout: 69.1%

2011 general election

2011 general election: Mayo^[15]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Fine Gael	Enda Kenny[*]	23.6	17,472
	Fine Gael	Michael Ring[*]	17.8	13,180
	Fine Gael	Michelle Mulherin	11.9	8,851	10,814	11,110	11,434	11,577	11,672	12,162	13,303
	Fine Gael	John O'Mahony[*]	11.7	8,667	10,290	10,511	10,688	10,864	11,004	11,340	12,111
	Fianna Fáil	Dara Calleary[*]	11.6	8,577	8,745	8,775	8,969	9,063	11,602	12,222	12,997
	Independent	Michael Kilcoyne	5.4	3,996	4,641	4,715	4,947	5,128	5,462	6,137	7,379
	Labour	Jerry Cowley	4.9	3,644	3,955	4,037	4,294	4,529	4,714	5,899
	Sinn Féin	Rose Conway-Walsh	3.6	2,660	2,752	2,813	2,939	4,367	4,527
	Fianna Fáil	Lisa Chambers	4.5	3,343	3,464	3,491	3,552	3,619
	Sinn Féin	Thérèse Ruane	2.9	2,142	2,260	2,277	2,438
	New Vision	Martin Daly	1.2	893	919	926
	Green	John Carey	0.4	266	280	282
	Independent	Dermot McDonnell	0.3	216	237	238
	Independent	Loretta Clarke	0.3	218	226	228
	Independent	Seán Forkin	0.0	29	31	31
Electorate: 99,504   Valid: 74,154   Spoilt: 641 (0.9%)   Quota: 12,360   Turnout: 74,795 (75.2%)

2007 general election

2007 general election: Mayo^[13]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Fine Gael	Enda Kenny[*]	20.6	14,717
	Fine Gael	Michael Ring[*]	16.0	11,412	12,441
	Fine Gael	John O'Mahony	9.6	6,869	7,544	7,759	8,003	8,717	8,855	9,587	13,736
	Fianna Fáil	Dara Calleary	10.1	7,225	7,248	7,251	7,438	7,699	8,803	9,345	11,269
	Independent	Beverley Flynn[*]	9.5	6,779	7,131	7,212	7,387	8,043	9,322	10,684	11,250
	Fianna Fáil	John Carty[*]	8.2	5,889	5,926	5,937	5,991	6,519	7,825	8,214	8,303
	Fine Gael	Michelle Mulherin	7.6	5,428	5,877	6,016	6,416	6,681	6,763	7,644
	Fianna Fáil	Frank Chambers	6.1	4,345	4,386	4,406	4,499	4,705
	Independent	Jerry Cowley[*]	4.8	3,407	3,487	3,529	3,910	4,784	5,342
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Murray	5.1	3,608	3,660	3,668	3,845
	Labour	Harry Barrett	1.2	831	896	917
	Green	Peter Enright	0.8	580	594	597
	Progressive Democrats	Tommy Cooke	0.4	296	298	298
Electorate: 98,696   Valid: 71,386   Spoilt: 700 (1.0%)   Quota: 11,898   Turnout: 72,086 (73.0%)

2002 general election

2002 general election: Mayo^[12]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Independent	Jerry Cowley	13.7	8,709	9,213	9,808	10,573	11,128
	Fine Gael	Michael Ring[*]	15.6	9,880	10,045	10,384	10,576	10,907
	Fine Gael	Enda Kenny[*]	9.2	5,834	5,954	6,045	6,142	6,478	6,576	6,707	7,307	11,922
	Fianna Fáil	John Carty	10.2	6,457	6,512	6,555	6,756	6,817	6,822	6,824	8,284	9,531	10,157
	Fianna Fáil	Beverley Flynn[*]	10.5	6,661	6,741	6,886	7,123	7,167	7,178	7,187	9,517	9,749	9,910
	Fianna Fáil	Tom Moffatt[*]	10.3	6,536	6,749	6,892	7,084	7,521	7,661	7,697	8,625	8,878	9,187
	Fine Gael	Jim Higgins[*]	9.2	5,858	5,971	6,035	6,155	6,833	6,998	7,100	7,220
	Fianna Fáil	Frank Chambers	9.0	5,726	5,792	6,045	6,266	6,307	6,315	6,319
	Fine Gael	Ernie Caffrey	3.6	2,290	2,419	2,486	2,558
	Sinn Féin	Vincent Wood	3.3	2,085	2,181	2,274
	Independent	Michael Holmes	2.8	1,754	1,873
	Progressive Democrats	Billy Heffron	1.5	919
	Green	Ann Crowley	1.1	669
	Independent	Thomas King	0.2	102
Electorate: 94,854   Valid: 63,480   Spoilt: 790 (1.2%)   Quota: 10,581   Turnout: 64,270 (67.8%)

1997 general election

1997 general election: Mayo^[22]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Fine Gael	Michael Ring[*]	16.3	10,066	10,143	10,350
	Fine Gael	Jim Higgins[*]	11.2	6,945	7,006	7,069	7,671	7,801	9,974	11,163
	Fianna Fáil	Beverley Cooper-Flynn	13.5	8,353	8,418	8,511	8,653	8,766	8,944	11,087
	Fine Gael	Enda Kenny[*]	13.9	8,568	8,626	8,797	8,989	9,083	10,210	10,428
	Fianna Fáil	Tom Moffatt[*]	9.3	5,735	5,765	5,801	5,820	6,384	7,861	9,453	9,676
	Fianna Fáil	Séamus Hughes[*]	11.0	6,791	6,859	6,953	7,008	7,092	7,151	8,169	8,395
	Fianna Fáil	P. J. Morley[*]	9.2	5,692	5,795	5,847	6,378	6,458	6,497
	Fine Gael	Ernie Caffrey	7.4	4,579	4,608	4,673	4,701	5,407
	Independent	Gerry Ginty	2.7	1,656	1,842	1,941	2,079
	Independent	Richard Finn	2.7	1,683	1,729	1,800
	Green	Ann Crowley	1.5	938	1,022
	National Party	Ciarán Sherry	1.2	733
	Independent	Cormac Connie Cullen	0.2	119
Electorate: 87,719   Valid: 61,858   Spoilt: 614 (1.0%)   Quota: 10,310   Turnout: 62,472 (71.2%)

See also

• Elections in the Republic of Ireland
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• List of political parties in the Republic of Ireland

References

1. Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017, Schedule (No. 39 of 2017, Schedule). Act of the Oireachtas. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 18 July 2018.
2. "Constituency Review Report 2023" (PDF). Electoral Commission. pp. 54–55. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
3. Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023, Schedule (No. 40 of 2023, Schedule). Enacted on 19 December 2023. Act of the Oireachtas. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 16 February 2024.
4. Electoral (Amendment) Act 1995, Schedule (No. 21 of 1995, Schedule). Enacted on 20 July 1995. Act of the Oireachtas. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 3 January 2022.
5. Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1998, Schedule (No. 19 of 1998, Schedule). Enacted on 16 June 1998. Act of the Oireachtas. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 3 January 2022.
6. Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005, Schedule (No. 16 of 2005, Schedule). Act of the Oireachtas. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 3 January 2022.
7. Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009, Schedule (No. 4 of 2009, Schedule). Enacted on 24 February 2009. Act of the Oireachtas. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 3 January 2022.
8. Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2013, Schedule (No. 7 of 2013, Schedule). Act of the Oireachtas. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved from Irish Statute Book on 3 January 2022.
9. "Constituency Commission Report 2012: Dáil and European Parliament Constituencies" (PDF). Constituency Commission. 21 June 2012. p. 71. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
10. "Constituency Commission Report 2017" (PDF). Constituency Commission. 27 June 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
11. "General election 1997: Mayo". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
12. "General election 2002: Mayo". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
13. "General election 2007: Mayo". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
14. "Beverly Flynn readmitted to FF". RTÉ News. 3 April 2008. Retrieved 17 February 2009.
15. "General election 2011: Mayo". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
16. "General election 2016: Mayo". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
17. "General election 2020: Mayo". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
18. "Mayo: 2020 General Election". Irelandelection.com. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
19. "General Election 2020 Results – Mayo". RTÉ News. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
20. "Mayo Results 2016". Irelandelection.com.
21. "Mayo Results 2016". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019.
22. Government of Ireland (1998). 28th Dáil General Election June, 1997 Election Results and Transfer of Votes. Stationery Office, Government of Ireland.