FINE GAEL HAS confirmed that it will run four candidates in Mayo in the next general election, following a meeting of the party’s Executive Council on Thursday night.

Minister of State Alan Dillon, as well as Mark Duffy, Keira Keogh and Martina Jennings will all vie for seats in the constituency, now a five-seater since the boundary changes last year.

Outgoing Fine Gael TD Michael Ring announced that he will not contest the next general election in June, after 30 years as a TD in Mayo.

He’s one of 17 Fine Gael TDs around the country who have bowed out of the upcoming race.

Fine Gael currently holds two seats in the Mayo constituency. The party expects Minister of State Alan Dillon to hold his seat.

Keira Keogh will contest the general election after failing to secure a council seat.

Hopeful John O’Hara, a councillor in Ballina, unexpectedly decided last minute he would not be running.

Duffy, an Independent councillor in Ballina, has been seen as a left-field choice by the party.

Jennings, the CEO of Mayo Roscommon Hospice, will take a leave of absence from her job to pursue a Dáil seat.

It is thought that Fine Gael has chosen Jennings, who was not a member of the party until recent weeks, to block Claremorris councillor Patsy O’Brien who lives in the same village, Hollymount.

O’Brien was expelled from Fine Gael four years ago and topped the polls as an Independent in the local elections in June.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil is running two candidates in Mayo - Dara Calleary and Lisa Chambers.

Sinn Féin will likely run two candidates, one of whom being sitting TD Rose Conway-Walsh. She has expressed an interest in running alongside Charlestown-based county councillor Gerry Murray.

Last August, the Electoral Commission announced the addition of 14 TDs to the Dáil and a redrawing of constituency boundaries, giving Mayo an extra seat.

It had been a five-seat constituency from 1995 to 2013, when it was reduced to a four-seater with a significant part of south Mayo transferred to Galway West.

The timing of the election has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks.