Local electoral area


A local electoral area is an electoral area for elections to local authorities in Ireland. All elections use the single transferable vote. The boundaries of LEAs are defined by statutory instrument in terms of lower-level units called electoral divisions.

Municipal districts

A municipal district is a division of a local authority which can exercise certain powers of the local authority. They came into being on 1 June 2014, ten days after the local elections, under the provisions of the Local Government Reform Act 2014. Of the 31 local authorities, 25 are subdivided into municipal districts, which comprise one or more LEA. The exceptions are the three city councils and the three county councils in Dublin. A district associated with a city or borough is termed a metropolitan district or borough district respectively.
In 2019, John Paul Phelan, Minister of State for Local Government and Electoral Reform commented in the Dáil:

Boundaries

Boundaries for local electoral areas and municipal district are determined by statutory instrument of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. The minister must first establish an independent boundary committee, but need not accept its advice. A boundary committee has been required since 1994 for electoral areas. The 2012–13 Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee considered both administrative areas and electoral areas. In 2015, separate committees were set up to consider adjustments to county and municipal boundaries passing through each of four urban areas: Athlone, Carlow, Drogheda, and Waterford. A Boundary Committee established in 2017 and which reported in June 2018 recommended alterations to municipal districts and local electoral areas which were implemented in December 2018.

Areas

Below are the districts and local electoral areas as defined by the most recent SI in each case and which were used at the 2019 local elections. Unless otherwise specified, districts are titled "Municipal District of Carlow", etc.