Why Sinn Féin must step up to the plate in Mayo local elections
With the 2024 local elections now officially underway, the people of Mayo can expect plenty of knocks on their doors over the coming weeks.
All bar three of the 30 outgoing members of Mayo County Council are seeking re-election.
Ballyhaunis Fine Councillor John Cribbin and Knockmore Independent Councillor Seamus Weir are stepping away after serving 25 years on the authority, both having been first elected in 1999, while Swinford Fianna Fáil member Michael Smyth resigned mid-term, citing personal attacks over a controversial local biogas project.
While it is generally accepted that the powers of county councillors has dwindled significantly over the past decade or so, it still means a lot to a town or parish to have its own representative in the corridors of power at Aras an Chontae in Castlebar.
They have a integral role, for example, in the allocation of the council's General Municipal Allocation on an annual basis.
A significant amount of money is set aside every year for which voluntary and other groups can apply in respect of projects in their communities.
There is also a discretionary element to this scheme which permits councillors to select the projects they wish to fund and by how much.
Over the course of a five-year term, the amount of money a councillor would have been directly involved in allocating to initiatives in their areas is nothing short of significant, to the point of being able to sway a large proportion of votes.
Consequently, outgoing councillors have a considerable advantage over new candidates by the time the elections come around.
It is not easy for newcomers to break through unless there are vacancies created or the winds of political change are blowing in a new direction.
This will be the first time local elections are held following the landmark seachange in the aftermath of the 2020 general election when the unthinkable happened - the two civil war parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, went into coalition for the first time to form a government with the support of the Green Party.
This opened the door for Sinn Féin to become the main opposition party, a position on which it capitalised by becoming the most popular political grouping in the country, as consistent national opinion polls have shown.
How will this play out on June 7?
That's the key question of the 2024 local elections.
Who's seats will their candidates take and how many?
That's the challenge facing Sinn Féin in Mayo as it approaches an election with just one outgoing councillor, the long-serving Gerry Murray of Charlestown.
If Sinn Féin fails to make gains at the expense of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, serious questions will be rightly asked just months ahead of the next general election.
Although the 2019 local elections and 2020 general election were dramatically different in terms of Sinn Féin performance in Mayo and elsewhere, the party is in a different place now and needs to show it at local level.
This is the real political story that's unfolding now.