The sitting Councillor, who is originally from Thurles, has been officially added to the ticket despite missing out on a nomination at a convention on Monday night.
Ms. Hanafin topped the poll at Monday's convention but was pipped by councillor Cormac Devlin on transfers.
Both Mary Hanafin, who is a daughter of former Senator Des Hanafin, and Cormac Devlin have both previously claimed that the party's best hope for a seat is by running a single candidate – but the two will now both go forward in what is effectively a three-seat constituency.
Cormac Devlin says he still believes a single-candidate strategy would offer Fianna Fáil's best hope of taking a seat.
Mary Hanafin has rejected the suggestion she has been added to the ticket to meet the gender quota.
“I don't think anybody would ever accuse me of just being a gender quota” she said.
“I'm delighted to see new candidates coming forward – it's important for any political party that people would be coming forward and would run”.
“At the end of the day as Fianna Fáil, as a party hoping to be able to put forward our policies, we need to win seats”.
“The party feels that I have a good track record in attracting votes” she added.
