Turnout in Ballymote-Tobercurry was among the highest at the 2024 local elections

A party needs 10 of the 18 seats to outvote the rest. None has that: Fianna Fáil is largest with 6. None of the 31 councils has a single-party majority. Fine Gael is second with 4 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 Ballymote-Tobercurry local electoral areaBallymote-Tobercurry · 7 members
   Paul TaylorMichael ClarkeGerard MullaneyDara MulveyJoseph QueenanLiam BrennanBarry Gallagher
2. 2

   Sligo County Council18 councillors from 3 local electoral areas
   Fianna Fáil 6 · Fine Gael 4 · Independent 4 · Sinn Féin 2 · People Before Profit–Solidarity 1 · Labour Party 1
3. 3

   Dáil ÉireannSligo-Leitrim · 4 members
   Eamon ScanlonFrankie FeighanMarian HarkinMartin Kenny

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).

Coolaney’s councillors, one by one

4 of the 7 were sitting councillors who were re-elected; 3 weren’t on the council before the election.

Seats by party in each of Sligo 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.

3 of the 18 councillors are women, 17%; across all 31 councils the share is 26%. 12 sat on the council before the election and 6 are new to it.

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

16,277 of 26,024 registered voters turned out, 62.6%: the 10th-highest of 166 local electoral areas (all of them: 49.4%). With 16,166 valid votes and 7 seats the quota was 2,021; the count ran to 12 rounds. No candidate reached the quota on first preferences: transfers filled every seat. Barry Gallagher (Fianna Fáil) took the last seat with 1,569 votes at the final count, 92 more than Martin Connolly (Fine Gael), on 1,477.

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

39 candidates stood for 18 seats on Sligo County Council in June 2024, 2.2 for each seat. Turnout across the council was 56.2%, the 6th-highest of 31 councils. Fianna Fáil elected 6 of its 8 candidates. 8 of the 39 candidates were women (21%; 31% across the country), and 8 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 Sligo-Leitrim, November 2024

Turnout was 61%, 57,316 of 94,040 registered voters: the 15th-highest of 43 Dáil constituencies (all of them: 59.7%). The quota was 11,381: 56,900 valid votes for 4 seats, counted over 13 rounds. Nobody reached the quota on first preferences, so every seat was filled on transfers. Marian Harkin (Independent), 7th on first preferences, won a seat on transfers, overtaking Michael Clarke (Independent Ireland), who was 3rd. The last seat went to Marian Harkin (Independent) with 10,168 votes at the final count, 881 ahead of Michael Clarke (Independent Ireland), who had 9,287.

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

Leaving out the HAP programme, that is the 5th-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 €80.8M.

Commercial rates on businesses pay for 19% of the budget. Its annual rate on valuation is 0.2536, the 5th-lowest of the 31 councils that rate on revalued property. The Local Property Tax brings in another 16%.

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).

Sligo County Council has 18 councillors for 70,198 residents: about 3,900 each, the 5th-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).