Fionnán Sheahan

Hey there, we are Indosport.

With me, Joe Malloy, we cover sport and we have things like this.

Hey there, we are Indosport with me, Joe Malloy.

We cover sport and we have things like this.

Fired a starting gun, the race is on.

Well, so says Gerry Hutch at least.

You heard him there blasting heavyweight government figures as he signals his intention to get into Dáil Éireann and presumably do better than they have to date.

The Monk is knowingly running on a non-traditional anti-establishment campaign.

No key political mantra to speak of, more a let's get in there and shake things up kind of vibe.

So, should we take him seriously?

And now that we have a date for the upcoming by-elections, just how pivotal could they prove?

I'm Fionnuala Sheehan, and today on the IndoDaily, I'm joined by Aisling Maloney and John Downing of the Irish Independent Politics team to crunch the contenders and the numbers.

Right, Aisling Maloney, if I, as I did this morning, walk through the Dublin Central constituency, I will see posters up on lampposts because the by-election campaign is now officially on.

And we've got these two by-elections in Dublin Central and Galway West on May the 22nd.

But let's talk about one candidate who is bound to get a whole lot of attention again, and that is Gerry Hutch.

who came very close to becoming a Choc de Dala in the general election.

He's back on the campaign trail in Dublin Central.

He spoke to our colleague Ali Bracken at the weekend, talking about his political and world views.

What is he saying are the issues in this by-election?

It was surprising to me that running as an independent and as a local candidate, he doesn't really have a project or he doesn't really have some sort of local piece of infrastructure that he wants to see developed or anything like that.