The last seat in Cork North-Central was won by 35 votes

A party needs 16 of the 31 seats to outvote the rest. None has that: Fianna Fáil is largest with 9. None of the 31 councils has a single-party majority. Fine Gael 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 Cork City North West local electoral areaCork City North West · 6 members
   Tony FitzgeraldDamian BoylanJohn SheehanKenneth CollinsMichelle GouldBrian McCarthy
2. 2

   Cork City Council31 councillors from 5 local electoral areas
   Fianna Fáil 9 · Fine Gael 5 · Sinn Féin 4 · Independent 4 · Labour Party 3 · Green Party 3 · Social Democrats 1 · Independent Ireland 1 · People Before Profit–Solidarity 1
3. 3

   Dáil ÉireannCork North-Central · 5 members
   Colm BurkeEoghan KennyKen O'FlynnPádraig O'SullivanThomas Gould

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).

Tower’s councillors, one by one

5 of the 6 were sitting councillors who were re-elected; 1 weren’t on the council before the election.

Seats by party in each of Cork City Council’s 5 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.

5 of the 31 councillors are women, 16%; across all 31 councils the share is 26%. 20 sat on the council before the election and 11 are new to it.

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

12,526 of 30,018 registered voters turned out, 41.7%: the 150th-highest of 166 local electoral areas (all of them: 49.4%). The quota was 1,753: 12,269 valid votes for 6 seats, counted over 10 rounds. Tony Fitzgerald (Fianna Fáil) and Damian Boylan (Fine Gael) reached the quota on first preferences alone, and transfers decided the other 4. Brian McCarthy (People Before Profit–Solidarity) was 7th on first preferences and elected on transfers, ahead of Mick Nugent (Sinn Féin), 6th on first preferences. The last seat went to Brian McCarthy (People Before Profit–Solidarity) with 1,366 votes at the final count, 193 ahead of Ross Lahive (The Irish People), who had 1,173.

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

76 candidates stood for 31 seats on Cork City Council in June 2024, 2.5 for each seat. Turnout across the council was 43.7%, the 28th-highest of 31 councils. Fianna Fáil elected 9 of its 12 candidates. 26 of the 76 candidates were women (34%; 31% across the country), and 15 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 Cork North-Central, November 2024

Turnout was 57.8%, 59,623 of 103,250 registered voters: the 35th-highest of 43 Dáil constituencies (all of them: 59.7%). With 59,071 valid votes and 5 seats the quota was 9,846; the count ran to 17 rounds. No candidate reached the quota on first preferences: transfers filled every seat. Eoghan Kenny (Labour Party), 7th on first preferences, won a seat on transfers, overtaking Tony Fitzgerald (Fianna Fáil), who was 5th. Eoghan Kenny (Labour Party) took the last seat with 7,461 votes at the final count, 35 more than Mick Barry (People Before Profit–Solidarity), on 7,426.

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

Leaving out the HAP programme, that is the 7th-highest of the 31 councils per resident; across all of them it is €1,551. The budget is up 11% on 2025, when it was €325.1M.

Commercial rates on businesses pay for 30% of the budget. Its annual rate on valuation, 81.4699, applies to the older rateable valuation that Cork City and Cork County still use, so it isn’t compared with the other councils’. The Local Property Tax brings in another 7%.

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).

Cork City Council has 31 councillors for 224,004 residents: about 7,230 each, the 4th-highest 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).