The last seat in Tullow was won by 1 vote

A party needs 10 of the 18 seats to outvote the rest. None has that: Fine Gael is largest with 6. None of the 31 councils has a single-party majority. Fianna Fáil is second with 5 seats. The councillors elect a cathaoirleach each June to chair the council for a year; no open national list names them.

The 31 councils of Ireland

Seats by party as elected, largest party named; this council first.

Local and general election results 2024: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (CC BY-SA 4.0); areas matched to towns by TownRatings from Tailte Éireann boundaries and CSO Census 2022 Small Areas (CC BY 4.0).

Who to ask

Green: the council. Gold: a government department or one of its agencies. Grey: another public body.

1. 1

   The Tullow local electoral areaTullow · 6 members
   John PenderCharlie MurphyWill PatonBen WardBrian O'DonoghueJim Deane
2. 2

   Carlow County Council18 councillors from 3 local electoral areas
   Fine Gael 6 · Fianna Fáil 5 · Independent 2 · Sinn Féin 2 · Labour Party 1 · People Before Profit–Solidarity 1 · Independent Ireland 1
3. 3

   Dáil ÉireannCarlow-Kilkenny · 5 members
   Catherine CallaghanJennifer Murnane O'ConnorJohn McGuinnessNatasha Newsome DrennanPeter 'Chap' Cleere

Party colours are neutral on purpose: they tell parties apart and aren’t the parties’ own. TDs: Houses of the Oireachtas Open Data (Oireachtas PSI Licence, CC BY 4.0).

Clonegall’s councillors, one by one

4 of the 6 were sitting councillors who were re-elected; 2 weren’t on the council before the election.

Seats by party in each of Carlow County Council’s 3 local electoral areas

Each of the local electoral areas elects 3 to 7 councillors by single transferable vote: voters number the candidates in order, a candidate who reaches the quota is elected, and spare votes and those of the lowest candidate pass to the next preference. A councillor who leaves is replaced by co-option, usually from the same party, so the names can change without an election.

Councillors: same source as Who’s in charge, above.

2 of the 18 councillors are women, 11%; across all 31 councils the share is 26%. 14 sat on the council before the election and 4 are new to it.

The council: same source as Who’s in charge, above.

Turnout was 48.7%, 7,868 of 16,167 registered voters: the 95th-highest of 166 local electoral areas (all of them: 49.4%). With 7,797 valid votes and 6 seats the quota was 1,114; the count ran to 13 rounds. John Pender (Fianna Fáil) and Charlie Murphy (Independent) reached the quota on first preferences alone, and transfers decided the other 4. Jim Deane (Sinn Féin), 7th on first preferences, won a seat on transfers, overtaking Catherine Callaghan (Fine Gael), who was 6th. The last seat went to Jim Deane (Sinn Féin) with 893 votes at the final count, 1 ahead of Catherine Callaghan (Fine Gael), who had 892.

How Clonegall voted: same source as Who’s in charge, above.

41 candidates stood for 18 seats on Carlow County Council in June 2024, 2.3 for each seat. Turnout across the council was 47.5%, the 24th-highest of 31 councils. Fine Gael elected 6 of its 8 candidates. 12 of the 41 candidates were women (29%; 31% across the country), and 7 stood without a party. Across all 31 councils, 2,172 candidates stood for 949 seats, 2.3 for each.

Local elections: same source as Who’s in charge, above.

TDs as the Oireachtas lists them today, with any office they hold; a by-election or a change of party shows here, the 2024 count below does not change.

First preferences in Carlow-Kilkenny, November 2024

70,324 of 120,821 registered voters turned out, 58.2%: the 32nd-highest of 43 Dáil constituencies (all of them: 59.7%). The quota was 11,627: 69,761 valid votes for 5 seats, counted over 16 rounds. No candidate reached the quota on first preferences: transfers filled every seat. Natasha Newsome Drennan (Sinn Féin) was 6th on first preferences and elected on transfers, ahead of Áine Gladney Knox (Sinn Féin), 5th on first preferences. The last seat went to Natasha Newsome Drennan (Sinn Féin) with 8,791 votes at the final count, 132 ahead of Áine Gladney Knox (Sinn Féin), who had 8,659.

Dáil Éireann: same source as Who’s in charge, above.

Leaving out the HAP programme, that is the 12th-lowest of the 31 councils per resident; across all of them it is €1,551. The budget is up 2% on 2025, when it was €81.4M.

Commercial rates on businesses pay for 20% of the budget. Its annual rate on valuation is 0.2700, the 12th-lowest of the 31 councils that rate on revalued property. The Local Property Tax brings in another 12%.

Budgets: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Local Authority Annual Budgets 2025 and 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), revenue account before inter-authority contributions are netted; residents: CSO Census 2022 (CC BY 4.0).

Carlow County Council has 18 councillors for 61,968 residents: about 3,440 each, the 3rd-lowest of 31 councils. The range runs from 9,410 residents per councillor on Dublin City to 1,960 on Leitrim County.

Seats: local elections 2024 (Department of Housing, CC BY-SA 4.0); residents: CSO Census 2022 (CC BY 4.0).