Record number of women to contest June's local elections

A record number of women candidates are expected to run in June's local elections.

So far, 649 women have been selected or declared for the contests.

Although nominations do not close until midday on Saturday, this would mean around a third of candidates would be women.

The figures were provided by Women for Election based on analysis by the NUI Maynooth lecturer, Adrian Kavanagh.

Women for Election said the record numbers have been achieved, despite fears of a "chilling effect" from social media abuse which it says could act as a deterrent to women running for public office.

Claire McGing - a social scientist who has done extensive research on women in Irish politics - said that as well as the traditional challenges facing women running for office "an emerging and quite concerning trend is women who are very vocal on women’s equality issues being targeted most for online abuse".

Women for Election CEO, Brian Sheehan, said these elections are a key moment for Irish people to address the gender imbalance in Irish politics.