Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams is expected to announce today that he wants to be the party's candidate in the Louth constituency for the next General Election.
Mr Adams is expected to confirm his plans at a republican commemoration event in Co Louth this afternoon.
During the week Sinn Féin’s sitting TD in the Louth constituency, 56-year-old Arthur Morgan, announced that he would be stepping down at the next election to concentrate on his family business.
62-year-old Mr Adams, Sinn Féin's best-known figure, is a member of Northern Ireland’s Assembly and an MP at Westminster where Sinn Féin has an abstentionist policy.
Securing the party nomination in Louth is expected be a formality.
Once that is done Mr Adams is likely to resign his West Belfast Assembly seat to concentrate on the Louth contest in the next Dáil election.
The constituency’s other TDs are Seamus Kirk and Dermot Ahern of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s Fergus O Dowd.
In the last two elections Mr Morgan got the fourth and final seat with around 15% of the first preference vote.
