2014 Carlow County Council election

2014 Carlow County Council election

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All 18 seats on Carlow County Council
Turnout	52.3% 5.5% [1]
First party Second party Third party   Party Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Seats won 6 5 3 Seat change −4 +1 +3   Fourth party Fifth party   Party Labour Independent Seats won 2 2 Seat change −3 -
Map showing the area of Carlow County Council
Cathaoirleach before election Des Hurley Lab Subsequent Cathaoirleach Fergal Browne FG

An election to all 18 seats on Carlow County Council was held on 23 May 2014 as part of the 2014 Irish local elections. County Carlow was divided into two local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

Administrative changes

Carlow County Council had been allocated 21 seats under the Local Government Act 2001. ^[2] In November 2012, Phil Hogan, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, appointed a Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee to review the allocation of seats and the local electoral areas across local authorities. In the case of Carlow County Council, it recommended a decrease to 18 seats. ^[3] In addition, the town councils of Carlow and Muinebheag were abolished. This was implemented by the Local Government Reform Act 2014. ^[4] County Carlow was redrawn into two electoral areas, a reduction from five. ^[5]

Analysis

While Fine Gael remained the largest party after the election, in terms of seats though not in terms of vote share, they lost two-fifths of their councillors. Their colleagues in government, the Labour Party, lost three-fifths of their councillors being reduced to just 2 seats. Fianna Fáil gained a seat to return 5 members and reported a higher vote than Fine Gael but the big winners were Sinn Féin who won 3 seats to supplant Labour as the traditional third-largest party.

Results by party

Party		Seats	±	1st pref	FPv%	±%
	Fine Gael	6	−4	5,808	27.0
	Fianna Fáil	5	+1	6,207	28.9
	Sinn Féin	3	+3	2,723	12.7
	Labour	2	−3	2,830	13.2
	Independent	2	—	3,010	14.0
Total		18	−3		100.0	—

Results by local electoral area

^  *: Outgoing councillor.

Carlow

Carlow: 10 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
	Fianna Fáil	Jennifer Murnane O'Connor [*] [a]	13.04	1,530
	Fianna Fáil	John Pender [*]	11.54	1,354
	Sinn Féin	John Cassin	9.18	1,077
	Fine Gael	Brian O'Donoghue	8.68	1,018	1,025	1,073
	Fianna Fáil	Fintan Phelan	8.62	1,011	1,128
	Sinn Féin	Jim Deane	7.18	842	878	900	902	908	909	917	940	961	981	1,042	1,174
	Fianna Fáil	Ann Ahern née Long [*] [a]	5.76	676	769	827	852	853	854	858	873	874	916	961	981	987	1,007	1,063
	Independent	Walter Lacey [*]	5.39	632	680	689	696	697	697	708	738	793	852	894	971	1,013	1,039	1,116
	Labour	William Paton [*]	5.20	610	617	694	695	695	697	699	704	712	738	794	818	828	1,022	1,046
	Fine Gael	Fergal Browne [*]	4.64	544	563	575	578	578	578	579	583	610	621	654	662	664	728	912
	Fine Gael	Wayne Fennell [*]	3.87	454	468	472	475	475	475	475	479	494	502	529	537	537	552
	Fine Gael	Tom O'Neill [*]	3.52	413	436	439	444	445	445	446	454	461	489	522	532	533	568	686
	Fine Gael	Kathy Walsh	3.11	365	369	401	401	401	402	404	409	412	415	429	436	439
	Anti-Austerity Alliance	Ned Costigan	2.47	290	301	306	307	308	309	315	366	385	391	402
	Labour	Caroline Townsend [*]	2.40	281	309	317	323	323	323	325	331	337	391
	Labour	Des Hurley [*]	1.90	223	256	258	260	260	260	265	270	282	282
	Independent	Declan Alcock	1.64	192	202	206	209	209	209	216	224
	Direct Democracy	Saoire O'Brien	1.41	166	173	175	177	177	177	182
	Independent	Pat Finnerty	0.27	32	33	33	33	33	33	33
	Independent	Conor Dowling	0.19	22	27	28	29	29	29	29
Electorate: 23,431  Valid: 11,732 (50.07%)  Spoilt: 139  Quota: 1,067  Turnout: 11,871 (50.66%)

Muinebheag

Muinebheag: 8 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
	Independent	Charlie Murphy [*]	14.14	1,377
	Fine Gael	Tommy Kinsella [*]	11.60	1,130
	Labour	Willie Quinn [*]	10.66	1,038	1,066	1,083
	Sinn Féin	Andy Gladney	8.26	804	825	827	840	858	885	926	974	1,176
	Fianna Fáil	Arthur McDonald [*]	8.09	788	803	806	809	851	863	1,018	1,032	1,081	1,099
	Fine Gael	Michael Doran [*]	7.90	769	775	777	790	805	814	838	882	939	949	950	1,107
	Fine Gael	John Murphy [*]	5.79	564	610	619	630	634	683	686	751	756	760	760	827
	Fine Gael	Denis Foley [*]	5.66	551	564	570	578	620	629	664	683	727	747	752	824
	Fianna Fáil	P.J. Kavanagh	5.05	492	536	538	566	567	598	634	668	701	711	712	777
	Labour	Jim Townsend [*]	4.73	461	474	475	486	516	554	586	639	678	698	701
	Anti-Austerity Alliance	Christy Cormac	4.49	437	447	448	459	481	492	523	586
	Fianna Fáil	David O'Brien	3.66	356	367	368	376	399	407
	Independent	Matthew English-Hayden	3.42	333	356	357	390	395
	Independent	Billy Nolan	2.68	261	303	304	322	324	324
	Labour	Ken Hickey	2.23	217	220	220	222
	Independent	Liam Foley	1.37	133	150	151
	Independent	Pat Finnerty	0.29	28	30	30
Electorate: 17,599  Valid: 9,739 (55.46%)  Spoilt: 139  Quota: 1,083  Turnout: 9,878 (56.26%)

1. Resigned, see below for changes

Changes

Co-options

Party		Outgoing	LEA	Reason	Date	Co-optee
	Fianna Fáil	Jennifer Murnane-O'Connor	Carlow	Elected to 25th Seanad in April 2016	9 June 2016	Ken Murnane [6]
	Fianna Fáil	Anne Ahern	Carlow	Appointed school principal [7]	9 October 2017	Andrea Dalton [8]

Changes in affiliation

Name	LEA	Elected as		New affiliation		Date
John Cassin	Carlow		Sinn Féin		Independent	February 2019 [9]

Local electoral areas

Carlow County Council was divided into the two local electoral areas (LEAs), defined by electoral divisions. ^[5]

LEA	Electoral divisions	Seats
Carlow	Ballinacarrig, Burton Hall, Carlow Rural, Carlow Urban, Graigue Urban and Johnstown.	10
Muinebeag	Agha, Ballintemple, Ballon, Ballyellin, Ballymoon, Ballymurphy, Borris, Clogrenan, Clonegall, Coonogue, Corries, Cranemore, Fennagh, Garryhill, Glynn, Kilbride, Killedmond, Kyle, Leighlinbridge, Marley, Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Rural, Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Urban, Myshall, Nurney, Oldleighlin, Rathanna, Rathornan, Rathrush, Ridge, Shangarry, Sliguff, Templepeter, Tinnahinch	8

References

1. "2014 Local Elections". electionsireland.org. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
2. Local Government Act 2001 , 7th Sch.: Number of members of local authorities ( No. 37 of 2001, 7th Sch. ). Enacted on 21 July 2001. Act of the Oireachtas .Retrieved from Irish Statute Book .
3. "Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee Report 2013" (PDF). Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee. 29 May 2013. p. 23.
4. Local Government Reform Act 2014 , s. 15: Number of members of local authorities ( No. 1 of 2014, s. 15 ). Enacted on 27 January 2014. Act of the Oireachtas .Retrieved from Irish Statute Book .
5. County of Carlow Local Electoral Areas and Municipal Districts Order 2014 ( S.I. No. 40 of 2014 ). Signed on 31 January 2014by Phil Hogan , Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government . Statutory Instrument of the Government of Ireland .Retrieved from Irish Statute Book .
6. Vaughan, MaryAnn (9 June 2016). "Carlow has a new Councillor and a new Seanad spokesperson today". KCLR 96FM .
7. "Anne Ahern has announced her resignation from Carlow County Council". KCLR 96FM. 11 September 2017.
8. "Carlow's newest councillor to take seat for the first time today". KCLR 96FM. 9 October 2017.
9. Pender, Suzanne (13 February 2019). "Cassin Quits Sinn Féin After Row With Party Boss". The Nationalist. Carlow Nationalist. Retrieved 1 July 2024.

Sources

• "Local Election: Carlow County Council". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 2 June 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
• "Carlow County Council Local Election". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 2 June 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.