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Constituency Returning Officers for European Parliament Constituencies

Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government today (11th Feb 2014) announced that he has appointed Constituency Returning Officers for the three European Parliament Constituencies in which 11 MEPs will be elected for the 2014-2019 parliamentary term.

Mr. James Barry, Dublin City Sheriff, will be returning officer for the 3 seat Dublin constituency. Mr. Fintan J Murphy, Mayo County Registrar, will be returning officer for the 4 seat Midlands-North-West constituency. Mr. Martin Harvey, Cork City Sheriff, will be returning officer for the 4 seat South constituency.

The three constituencies are specified in the European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2014.

The European Parliament and Local Elections will be held on Friday 23 May 2014 and polling stations will be open between 07.00am and 10.00pm.

At a European election, the Constituency Returning Officer takes nominations, runs the count and declares the result. The nomination paper prescribed in the European Parliament Elections Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 39 of 2014) will be available from the Constituency Returning Officers in due course.

The first day for the receipt of nominations of all candidates will be about 6 weeks before polling day. Nominations for nationals of EU Member States other than Ireland or the United Kingdom must be received within one week of that first day. Nominations for Irish or British citizens must be received within two weeks of that first day.

The Minister will in due course make the formal Orders for the European and local elections, setting the date and times for the polls. The precise dates for the nomination periods will then be confirmed by the returning officers when they publish the Notice of Election.