Ms Hayes, who practises in family firm Hayes Solicitors, will run in the Limerick City constituency, where Sinn Féin’s Maurice Quinlivan, Fianna Fáil’s Willie O’Dea, Fine Gael’s Kieran O’Donnell and the Green Party’s Brian Leddin are seeking re-election.

Co-founder and president of Environmental Trust Ireland, she has been involved in a number of legal challenges to “inappropriate and unsustainable” housing developments in the local area on the basis of their environmental impact.

She is currently involved in a challenge to the proposed Irish Cement incinerator in Mungret and the burning of tyres and other hazardous substances, which has progressed to the Supreme Court.

Her election manifesto includes a call for a new public hospital for Limerick and the immediate re-opening of A&E departments in Ennis and Nenagh.

Ms Hayes has also promised to “try to reverse the government policies which created the housing crisis”, including those which have “allowed vulture funds and cuckoo funds to flourish… making house purchase and renting completely unaffordable”.

“The government has left people behind and has failed to protect people in the cost-of-living crisis and it is recklessly over-spending on particular projects and wasting the people’s money,” she said.

She also opposes water abstraction from the River Shannon for Dublin, seeks more resources for gardaí, and wants to see inheritance tax thresholds increased, USC abolished and more VAT reliefs for businesses.