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The 2025 Irish presidential election must take place by Monday, 27 October 2025. The incumbent president, Michael D. Higgins, is term limited, having served the maximum two terms permitted under the Constitution of Ireland. He was elected in 2011 with the support of the Labour Party, and in 2018 as an independent. [1]
To stand for election as President of Ireland, candidates must:
If a member of the Oireachtas or a County or City council nominate more than one candidate, only the first nomination paper received from them will be deemed valid. [2] Presidential elections are conducted in line with Article 12 of the Constitution [3] and under the Presidential Elections Act 1993, as amended. [2] The President of Ireland is elected through Instant-runoff voting. [4] All Irish citizens entered on the current electoral register are eligible to vote. [3] Under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2011, there is a spending limit by each candidate of €750,000. Candidates who are elected or who reach 12.5% of the vote on their elimination are entitled to a reimbursement of expenses up to €200,000. [5]
| Last date of polling | Polling firm / Commissioner | Shortall | Fitzgerald | Ahern | Adams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 December 2024 [a] | Amárach Research [12] | 32% | 29% | 21% | 18% |
The president of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces.
Sinn Féin is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Gerard Adams is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011–2020. From 1983–1992 and from 1997–2011, he won election as a Member of Parliament (MP) of the UK Parliament for the Belfast West constituency, but followed the policy of abstentionism.
Seán Thomas O'Kelly, originally John T. O'Kelly, was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the second president of Ireland from June 1945 to June 1959. He also served as deputy prime minister of Ireland from 1932 to 1945, Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1932 to 1939, Minister for Finance from 1939 to 1945 and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1919 to 1921. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1945.
The 2004 Irish presidential election was scheduled for Friday, 22 October 2004. However, nominations closed at noon on 1 October and the incumbent president, Mary McAleese, who had nominated herself in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, was the only candidate nominated. Accordingly, she was re-elected for a second seven-year term of office without the need to hold an election. This was the third time a president was returned unopposed, following Seán T. O'Kelly in 1952, and Patrick Hillery in 1983. McAleese was inaugurated for her second term on Thursday, 11 November 2004.
The Workers' Party is an Irish republican, Marxist–Leninist communist party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness was an Irish republican politician and statesman for Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles. He was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to January 2017.
Republican Sinn Féin or RSF is an Irish republican political party in Ireland. RSF claims to be heirs of the Sinn Féin party founded in 1905; the party took its present form in 1986 following a split in Sinn Féin. RSF members take seats when elected to local government in the Republic of Ireland, but do not recognise the validity of the Partition of Ireland. It subsequently does not recognise the legitimacy of the parliaments of Northern Ireland (Stormont) or the Republic of Ireland, so the party does not register itself with them.
Mary Louise McDonald is an Irish politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition in Ireland since June 2020, as President of Sinn Féin since February 2018, and as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency since 2011. She previously served as vice president of Sinn Féin from 2009 to 2018 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 2004 to 2009.
Belfast North is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is John Finucane.
John Fitzgerald O'Dowd is an Irish Sinn Féin politician. He has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Upper Bann since 2003. He has served as Minister for Infrastructure from May to October 2022, and again since 2024. He served as Minister for Education in the Stormont Executive from 2011 to 2016. He briefly took on the duties of deputy First Minister in 2011 while Martin McGuinness ran in the 2011 Irish presidential election.
Terence Gerard 'Gerry' McGeough is a prominent Irish republican who was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), a former Sinn Féin activist and editor of the defunct The Hibernian magazine. McGeough broke with Sinn Féin in 2001 and he is now an independent Irish Catholic/nationalist activist. McGeough was set to serve 20 years of imprisonment after being found guilty in 2011 for attempted murder, although he was released two years later, on 29 January 2013, under the Good Friday Agreement.
Niall O'Dowd an Irish-born American journalist and author. He was involved in the negotiations leading to the Northern Irish Good Friday Peace Agreement. He is founder of Irish Voice newspaper and Irish America magazine in New York City, as well as overseeing Home and Away newspaper. He is also the founder of IrishCentral, an Irish website which he launched in March 2009.
Pat "Beag" McGeown was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
The 2011 Irish presidential election was the thirteenth presidential election to be held in Ireland, and was contested by a record seven candidates. It was held on Thursday, 27 October 2011. The election was held to elect a successor to Mary McAleese, with the winner to be inaugurated as the ninth President of Ireland on 11 November 2011. Two constitutional referendums and a by-election for a vacant Dáil seat in the Dublin West constituency took place on the same day.
The 2018 Irish presidential election took place on Friday, 26 October, between 7.00 a.m. and 10.00 p.m. President Michael D. Higgins, who was elected in 2011 with the support of the Labour Party, was seeking re-election to a second term as an Independent. This was the first time since the 1966 election that an incumbent president faced a contest for a second term. Higgins was re-elected on the first count with nearly 56% of the vote, becoming the first president since Éamon de Valera to win a second term in a contested election. He was inaugurated for his second term on 11 November.
Lynn Boylan is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Dublin constituency since July 2024. She was previously an MEP for Dublin from 2014 to 2019. From 2020 to 2024, she served as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel.
Liadh Ní Riada is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who formerly served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency from 2014 to 2019. She was the Sinn Féin candidate in the 2018 presidential election. As of July 2020, Ní Riada is an Irish language planning officer for the Gaeltacht in Muskerry, County Cork.
The president of Sinn Féin is the most senior politician within the Sinn Féin political party in Ireland. Since 10 February 2018, the office has been held by Mary Lou McDonald, following the decision of Gerry Adams to stand down as leader of the party and not seek re-election again. Unlike other political parties, the president of Sinn Féin does not have the power to dismiss or appoint their deputy and to dismiss or appoint parliamentary party members to front bench positions. These decisions are taken by the Ard Chomhairle.
The 2024 Irish general election to elect the 34th Dáil took place on Friday, 29 November 2024, following the dissolution of the 33rd Dáil on 8 November by President Michael D. Higgins at the request of Taoiseach Simon Harris. Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m UTC. It elected 174 Teachtaí Dála (TDs) across 43 constituencies of between 3 and 5 seats to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's legislature. Under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023, the number of TDs was increased from 160 to 174, with an increase in the number of constituencies from 39 to 43. The 34th Dáil will be the largest Dáil in the history of the state. The main issues in the campaign were the cost of living, housing affordability and availability, immigration and asylum management, and economic stability amid external trade uncertainties, reflecting voter concerns despite the country's strong overall financial health.
