Photo: Suzanne Mischyshyn · CC BY-SA 2.0Fianna Fáil has 14 of the 28 seats on Clare County Council, few parties hold more on a council
Clare County Council runs Doonbeg: Ireland has one tier of local government, with no town council below it. The Kilrush local electoral area elected 5 councillors in June 2024: Fianna Fáil 2, Independent 2 and Fine Gael 1. No party holds a majority on Clare County; Fianna Fáil has the most seats, 14 of 28, short of the 15 a majority needs. In the Dáil, Clare has 4 members: Fianna Fáil 2, Sinn Féin 1 and Fine Gael 1.
Doonbeg’s council and votes, in 4 figures
No majority on Clare County
Fianna Fáil won the most seats on Clare County Council in June 2024, 14 of 28, short of the 15 a majority needs; it ran 16 candidates. No party holds a majority on any of the 31 councils, so each council’s business is carried by votes across parties. Who’s in charge ↓
High turnout
10,992 of Kilrush’s 18,802 registered voters turned out in June 2024, 58%: the 22nd-highest of 166 local electoral areas (all of them: 49%). How Doonbeg voted ↓
High turnout
61,366 of Clare’s 96,398 registered voters turned out in November 2024, 64%: the 8th-highest of 43 Dáil constituencies (all of them: 60%). Dáil Éireann ↓
A large budget for its size
Clare County Council’s 2026 revenue budget comes to €1,593 for each resident, against €1,551 across all 31 councils, leaving out the HAP programme. Council money ↓
Written from the data on this page: the 2024 count sheets of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Oireachtas members list.
No party holds a majority on Clare County Council
Seats on Clare County Council as elected in June 2024, with each party’s candidates, and the other councils beside it.
- Fianna Fáil1416 stood
- Fine Gael911 stood
- Independent311 stood
- Sinn Féin26 stood
As elected on 7 June 2024.
A party needs 15 of the 28 seats to outvote the rest. None has that: Fianna Fáil is largest with 14. None of the 31 councils has a single-party majority. Fine Gael is second with 9 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).
One council, and the government for the rest
Doonbeg has no town or county council of its own: Ireland has 31 councils, each the only council for its area.
Housing and homelessness, planning, local and regional roads, parks and libraries, the fire service, bins enforcement and street cleaning, the register of electors, and the Local Property Tax rate it may vary.
clarecoco.ie ↗Schools (Department of Education), health (the HSE), national roads (TII), policing (An Garda Síochána) and the Local Property Tax itself (Revenue).
gov.ie ↗Uisce Éireann runs water and sewers; private operators collect most bins under the council’s rules.
Who to ask
Green: the council. Gold: a government department or one of its agencies. Grey: another public body.
From the council to the Dáil
Every elected tier that speaks for Doonbeg, from the most recent elections.
- 1The Kilrush local electoral areaKilrush · 5 membersRita McInerneyIan LynchDinny GouldMichael ShannonGabriel Keating
- 2Clare County Council28 councillors from 5 local electoral areasFianna Fáil 14 · Fine Gael 9 · Independent 3 · Sinn Féin 2
- 3Dáil ÉireannClare · 4 members
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).
5 councillors represent Kilrush
Each of the local electoral areas where 5% or more of the town’s residents live: who was elected, and who else stood.
- Rita McInerney
- Ian Lynch
- Dinny Gould
- Michael Shannon
- Gabriel Keating
Also stood (8): Cillian Murphy (Fianna Fáil), Alan Troy (Fianna Fáil), Therese Doohan (Fine Gael), Joe Woulfe (Independent Ireland), Dawn Bennett (Sinn Féin), Kevin Hassett (Independent Ireland), Susan Griffin (Green Party), John Hill (Irish Freedom Party).
Doonbeg’s councillors, one by one
| Councillor | Party | Area | First preferences | Result | Returning or new |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rita McInerney | Fianna Fáil | Kilrush | 1,340 | Elected at count 9, on the quota | Re-elected |
| Ian Lynch | Independent | Kilrush | 1,318 | Elected at count 9, on the quota | Re-elected |
| Dinny Gould | Independent | Kilrush | 1,310 | Elected at count 7, on the quota | New |
| Michael Shannon | Fianna Fáil | Kilrush | 1,051 | Elected at the last count, below the quota | New |
| Gabriel Keating | Fine Gael | Kilrush | 1,039 | Elected at count 10, on the quota | Re-elected |
3 of the 5 were sitting councillors who were re-elected; 2 weren’t on the council before the election.
Seats by party in each of Clare County Council’s 5 local electoral areas
Every area of Clare County Council: seats, candidates and turnout
| Area | Seats | Candidates | Electorate | Turnout | Quota |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilrush | 5 | 13 | 18,802 | 58.5% | 1,817 |
| Ennis | 7 | 13 | 24,226 | 49.4% | 1,473 |
| Ennistimon | 4 | 9 | 15,032 | 60.9% | 1,816 |
| Killaloe | 5 | 9 | 17,151 | 61.1% | 1,735 |
| Shannon | 7 | 15 | 23,726 | 49.7% | 1,456 |
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.
Of the 28 councillors on Clare County Council, women hold 6
Everyone elected to Clare County Council across its 5 local electoral areas in June 2024, by party: how many are women and how many sat on the council before.
| Party | Seats | Women | Re-elected | First preferences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fianna Fáil | 14 | 4 | 10 | 39.1% |
| Fine Gael | 9 | 1 | 7 | 29% |
| Independent | 3 | 0 | 2 | 11.7% |
| Sinn Féin | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7.3% |
6 of the 28 councillors are women, 21%; across all 31 councils the share is 26%. 20 sat on the council before the election and 8 are new to it.
Every member of Clare County Council
| Councillor | Party | Area | Returning or new |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pat Daly | Fianna Fáil | Ennis | Re-elected |
| Mary Howard | Fine Gael | Ennis | Re-elected |
| Paul Murphy | Fine Gael | Ennis | Re-elected |
| Clare Colleran Molloy | Fianna Fáil | Ennis | Re-elected |
| Tommy Guilfoyle | Sinn Féin | Ennis | New |
| Antoinette Baker Bashua | Fianna Fáil | Ennis | New |
| Tom O’Callaghan | Fianna Fáil | Ennis | Re-elected |
| Bill Slattery | Fine Gael | Ennistimon | New |
| Joe Garrihy | Fine Gael | Ennistimon | Re-elected |
| Joe Killeen | Fianna Fáil | Ennistimon | Re-elected |
| Shane Talty | Fianna Fáil | Ennistimon | Re-elected |
| Joe Cooney | Fine Gael | Killaloe | Re-elected |
| Pat Hayes | Fianna Fáil | Killaloe | Re-elected |
| Alan O’Callaghan | Fianna Fáil | Killaloe | Re-elected |
| Tony O’Brien | Fianna Fáil | Killaloe | Re-elected |
| Pat Burke | Fine Gael | Killaloe | Re-elected |
| Rita McInerney | Fianna Fáil | Kilrush | Re-elected |
| Ian Lynch | Independent | Kilrush | Re-elected |
| Dinny Gould | Independent | Kilrush | New |
| Michael Shannon | Fianna Fáil | Kilrush | New |
| Gabriel Keating | Fine Gael | Kilrush | Re-elected |
| David Griffin | Fianna Fáil | Shannon | New |
| John Crowe | Fine Gael | Shannon | Re-elected |
| Rachel Hartigan | Fianna Fáil | Shannon | New |
| Pat O’Gorman | Fianna Fáil | Shannon | Re-elected |
| Donna McGettigan | Sinn Féin | Shannon | Re-elected |
| Tony Mulcahy | Fine Gael | Shannon | New |
| Michael Begley | Independent | Shannon | Re-elected |
The council: same source as Who’s in charge, above.
First preferences in Kilrush, June 2024
Each candidate’s first-preference votes; the tick is the quota of 1,817. Elected candidates are in bold.
First-preference share by party in Kilrush
The tick is the party’s share across all of Ireland.
10,992 of 18,802 registered voters turned out, 58.5%: the 22nd-highest of 166 local electoral areas (all of them: 49.4%). The quota was 1,817: 10,901 valid votes for 5 seats, counted over 10 rounds. No candidate reached the quota on first preferences: transfers filled every seat. The last seat went to Michael Shannon (Fianna Fáil) with 1,570 votes at the final count, 202 ahead of Alan Troy (Fianna Fáil), who had 1,368.
Every candidate, count by count (10 counts)
| Candidate | Party | First preferences | Result | Votes at the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Shannon | Fianna Fáil | 1,051 | Elected at the last count, below the quota | 1,570 |
| Gabriel Keating | Fine Gael | 1,039 | Elected at count 10, on the quota | 1,826 |
| Ian Lynch | Independent | 1,318 | Elected at count 9, on the quota | 1,950 |
| Rita McInerney | Fianna Fáil | 1,340 | Elected at count 9, on the quota | 1,817 |
| Dinny Gould | Independent | 1,310 | Elected at count 7, on the quota | 1,817 |
| John Hill | Irish Freedom Party | 287 | Excluded at count 2 | – |
| Susan Griffin | Green Party | 332 | Excluded at count 3 | – |
| Kevin Hassett | Independent Ireland | 448 | Excluded at count 4 | – |
| Dawn Bennett | Sinn Féin | 490 | Excluded at count 5 | – |
| Joe Woulfe | Independent Ireland | 497 | Excluded at count 6 | – |
| Therese Doohan | Fine Gael | 796 | Excluded at count 7 | – |
| Cillian Murphy | Fianna Fáil | 1,011 | Excluded at count 9 | – |
| Alan Troy | Fianna Fáil | 982 | Not elected, standing at the last count | 1,368 |
How Doonbeg voted: same source as Who’s in charge, above.
Who stood, and who was elected, June 2024
Every candidate for Clare County Council, by party: the light bar is candidates, the solid bar those elected.
Share of candidates elected, all of Ireland
Parties with 10 or more candidates across the 31 councils.
59 candidates stood for 28 seats on Clare County Council in June 2024, 2.1 for each seat. Turnout across the council was 55%, the 8th-highest of 31 councils. Fianna Fáil elected 14 of its 16 candidates. 16 of the 59 candidates were women (27%; 31% across the country), and 11 stood without a party. Across all 31 councils, 2,172 candidates stood for 949 seats, 2.3 for each.
Turnout in all 31 councils
Local elections: same source as Who’s in charge, above.
Doonbeg is in Clare
4 TDs elected to the Dáil by single transferable vote on 29 November 2024, the whole constituency’s count.
Fianna Fáil
oireachtas.ie ↗Sinn Féin
oireachtas.ie ↗Fine Gael
oireachtas.ie ↗Fianna Fáil · Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment
oireachtas.ie ↗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 Clare, November 2024
First-preference share by party in Clare
61,366 of 96,398 registered voters turned out, 63.7%: the 8th-highest of 43 Dáil constituencies (all of them: 59.7%). With 60,907 valid votes and 4 seats the quota was 12,182; the count ran to 16 rounds. Nobody reached the quota on first preferences, so every seat was filled on transfers. Joe Cooney (Fine Gael) took the last seat with 10,790 votes at the final count, 2,328 more than Leonora Carey (Fine Gael), on 8,462.
Every candidate, count by count (16 counts)
| Candidate | Party | First preferences | Result | Votes at the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donna McGettigan | Sinn Féin | 7,843 | Elected at the last count, below the quota | 12,036 |
| Joe Cooney | Fine Gael | 7,575 | Elected at the last count, below the quota | 10,790 |
| Cathal Crowe | Fianna Fáil | 8,261 | Elected at count 15, on the quota | 12,344 |
| Timmy Dooley | Fianna Fáil | 11,313 | Elected at count 13, on the quota | 12,182 |
| Michael Loughrey | The Irish People | 101 | Excluded at count 2 | – |
| Barry O'Donovan | Rabharta | 87 | Excluded at count 2 | – |
| Amanda Major | Independent | 205 | Excluded at count 3 | – |
| Violet-Anne Wynne | Independent | 310 | Excluded at count 4 | – |
| Paddy Murphy | Independent | 443 | Excluded at count 5 | – |
| Matthew Moroney | Independent | 538 | Excluded at count 6 | – |
| Kevin Hassett | Independent | 670 | Excluded at count 7 | – |
| Caitríona Ní Chatháin | People Before Profit–Solidarity | 820 | Excluded at count 8 | – |
| Michael Leahy | Irish Freedom Party | 1,282 | Excluded at count 9 | – |
| Tom Nolan | Fine Gael | 2,139 | Excluded at count 10 | – |
| Hilary Tonge | Social Democrats | 2,144 | Excluded at count 11 | – |
| June Dillon | Aontú | 2,099 | Excluded at count 12 | – |
| Rita McInerney | Fianna Fáil | 3,473 | Excluded at count 13 | – |
| Eddie Punch | Independent Ireland | 2,583 | Excluded at count 15 | – |
| Róisín Garvey | Green Party | 3,770 | Excluded at count 16 | – |
| Leonora Carey | Fine Gael | 5,251 | Not elected, standing at the last count | 8,462 |
Dáil Éireann: same source as Who’s in charge, above.
Clare County Council plans to spend €1,593 per resident in 2026
What its 2026 revenue budget pays for, service by service, and where the money comes from.
By service, per resident, 2026
What pays for it, 2026
Shares of what funds the 2026 budget; the tick is all 31 councils together.
Leaving out the HAP programme, that is the 8th-highest of the 31 councils per resident; across all of them it is €1,551. The budget is up 6% on 2025, when it was €191.9M.
Commercial rates on businesses pay for 24% of the budget. Its annual rate on valuation is 0.2581, the 8th-highest of the 31 councils that rate on revalued property. The Local Property Tax brings in another 6%.
Budget per resident, all 31 councils (without the HAP programme)
Show the services as a table, 2025 and 2026
| Service | 2026 | Per resident | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housing and building | €47.2M | €369 | €40.5M | 16% |
| Roads and transport | €47.3M | €370 | €43.8M | 8% |
| Water services | €12.5M | €98 | €13.4M | -7% |
| Planning and development | €43.8M | €342 | €43.9M | 0% |
| Environment and fire | €23.5M | €184 | €21.4M | 10% |
| Libraries, parks and amenities | €15.2M | €119 | €14.3M | 6% |
| Agriculture, education, health and welfare | €623K | €5 | €558K | 12% |
| Other services | €14.1M | €110 | €14M | 1% |
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).
Each of Clare County Council’s 28 councillors speaks for about 4,570 residents
Residents per councillor on each of the 31 councils.
Clare County Council has 28 councillors for 127,938 residents: about 4,570 each, the 13th-lowest of 31 councils. The range runs from 9,410 residents per councillor on Dublin City to 1,960 on Leitrim County.
Residents per councillor, all 31 councils
Seats: local elections 2024 (Department of Housing, CC BY-SA 4.0); residents: CSO Census 2022 (CC BY 4.0).
Having a say in how Doonbeg is run
Check, register or update your address online; the register closes 15 days before a poll (Sundays and holidays aside).
checktheregister.ie ↗Potholes, broken lights, dumping and graffiti, sent to the council.
FixYourStreet.ie ↗Council and municipal district meetings are open to the public, with agendas and minutes online.
clarecoco.ie ↗Anyone may make a submission within five weeks of an application, for a fee of €20.
clarecoco.ie ↗Each TD’s contact details are on the Oireachtas members page.
oireachtas.ie ↗The Electoral Commission’s guidance for candidates and how to be nominated.
electoralcommission.ie ↗What this data can and can’t tell you
- Single transferable vote. Voters number candidates in order. The quota is the valid votes divided by one more than the seats, plus one. A candidate over the quota is elected and their surplus passes on; when nobody is over it, the lowest is excluded and their votes pass on, until the seats are filled. The last seats can go to candidates below the quota once too few are left to fill them. First preferences show where support started, not who won.
- Which area. A town is placed in its council, local electoral area and Dáil constituency by where its residents live (Census 2022 Small Areas); an area holding 5% or more of them is listed too. Areas reach beyond the town, so their results are the whole area’s.
- Turnout. Votes cast, spoilt ones included, as a share of the register. Registers carry people who have moved or died, so every turnout reads low by a few points; compare areas, not the figure on its own.
- A close last seat. Shown only when the last candidate elected and the one left standing were both in the final count; the gap is between their votes then. Margins are not shown as headlines unless they are among the closest.
- Not on this page. Audited accounts and debt are published only as PDF statements, so they aren’t on this page. Votes before 2024 aren’t compared: the local electoral areas were redrawn for the 2024 local elections and the Dáil constituencies in 2023, so earlier results don’t cover the same ground. Who chairs each council and who runs it as chief executive aren’t in any open national list; each council names them on its website.
Questions about how Doonbeg is run
Which council runs Doonbeg?
The one council for Doonbeg is Clare County Council: Ireland has a single tier of local government.
How many councillors does Doonbeg have?
The Kilrush local electoral area elects 5 councillors: Rita McInerney (Fianna Fáil), Ian Lynch (Independent), Dinny Gould (Independent), Michael Shannon (Fianna Fáil), Gabriel Keating (Fine Gael).
Which party has the most seats on Clare County Council?
No party has a majority. As elected, Fianna Fáil 14 · Fine Gael 9 · Independent 3 · Sinn Féin 2 of 28 seats; a majority needs 15.
Who are Doonbeg’s TDs?
Clare elects 4 TDs: Cathal Crowe (Fianna Fáil), Donna McGettigan (Sinn Féin), Joe Cooney (Fine Gael) and Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fáil).
What was the turnout in Doonbeg?
In Kilrush, 58.5% of registered voters turned out in June 2024 (Ireland: 49.4%). In Clare, 63.7% in November 2024 (59.7%).
When are the next elections in Doonbeg?
Local elections are held every five years, so the next are due in 2029, in May or June. A general election must be held within five years of the last one (November 2024), sooner if the Dáil is dissolved.
What does Clare County spend?
Clare County Council plans to spend €204.2M on day-to-day services in 2026, the most of it on roads and transport.
Sources: 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). · TDs: Houses of the Oireachtas Open Data (Oireachtas PSI Licence, CC BY 4.0). · Boundaries: Tailte Éireann (CC BY 4.0); population: CSO Census 2022 (CC BY 4.0).. Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).