The government's officially called the by-elections to fill two empty seats in the Dáil.

The writs to fill the seats in Dublin South West and Roscommon-South Leitrim were moved in the last hour.

The two elections will take place on Friday the 10th of October.

They'll fill the seats left behind by Brian Hayes and Luke 'Ming' Flanagan when they were elected as MEPs.

A separate by-election in Carlow-Kilkenny, to replace the new EU commissioner Phil Hogan, isn't expected until the new year.