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2004 Irish local elections

Nationwide local authority elections

Field	Value
election_name	2004 Irish local elections
country	Republic of Ireland
type	parliamentary
previous_election	1999 Irish local elections
previous_year	1999
next_election	2009 Irish local elections
next_year	2009
seats_for_election	1,627 County, City, Borough and Town Council Seats
election_date	11 June 2004
1blank	Largest Party on Council
2blank	Councillors
3blank	Councillors +/-
turnout	58.64% 8.45pp
image1
leader1	Bertie Ahern
leader_since1	19 November 1994
party1	Fianna Fáil
percentage1	31.8%
1data1	16
2data1	542
3data1	129
image2
leader2	Enda Kenny
leader_since2	6 June 2002
party2	Fine Gael
percentage2	27.6%
1data2	10
2data2	468
3data2	32
image3
leader3	Pat Rabbitte
leader_since3	13 October 2001
party3	Labour Party (Ireland)
percentage3	14.2%
1data3	4
2data3	188
3data3	18
image4
leader4	Gerry Adams
leader_since4	13 November 1983
party4	Sinn Féin
percentage4	8.1%
1data4	1
2data4	127
3data4	63
image5
leader5	Trevor Sargent
leader_since5	6 November 2001
party5	Green Party (Ireland)
percentage5	3.9%
1data5	N/A
2data5	32
3data5	15
image6
leader6	Mary Harney
leader_since6	26 October 1993
party6	Progressive Democrats
percentage6	3.9%
1data6	N/A
2data6	32
3data6

The 2004 Irish local elections were held in all the counties, cities and towns of Ireland on Friday, 11 June 2004, on the same day as the European elections and referendum on the amending the constitutional provisions on citizenship. Polling was delayed until 19 June 2004 in County Roscommon, due to the sudden death of Councillor Gerry Donnelly.

Turnout was the highest for 20 years at around 60%, helped by the extra publicity of the referendum. The result was a setback for Fianna Fáil, which saw its share of the vote drop by 7 percentage points from its 1999 result to 32%, losing 20% of its council seats. The party lost its majority on Clare County Council for the first time in 70 years, and fell behind Fine Gael in Galway, Limerick and Waterford city councils. Labour's share of the vote remained static at 11% while Fine Gael dropped 1%. However, both parties gained seats with the Labour Party becoming the largest party on Dublin City Council. Major gains were made by Sinn Féin which managed to double the number of seats it held, mainly at the expense of Fianna Fáil.

These were the first elections since the Local Government Act 2001 modernised council structures and abolished the dual mandate. Many new councillors were elected for the first time, including 33 of the 52 of the councillors on Dublin City Council, which the city manager described as "unprecedented in the history of local government". Many of the seats vacated by TDs and senators were won by family members.

Results

Voters received different-coloured ballot papers for the European election, city/county council election, and referendum, all of which went into the same ballot box and were separated by colour once the boxes arrived at the count centre for the city/county. According to the different franchises in Irish law, all residents were eligible to vote in the local elections, all EU citizens were eligible to vote in the European elections, and the referendum was confined to Irish citizens. Voters in towns with town councils received an additional ballot for that election, cast in a separate ballot box and counted locally within the town.

County, city and town council seats

Party	Seats	±
	542	129
	468	32
	188	18
	125	63
	32	19
	32
Others	240	3
Total	1627

County and City Councils

Party	Seats	±	1st pref	FPv%	±%
	302	80	578,139	31.8	7.1
	293	16	503,088	27.6	0.5
	101	18	207,518	11.4	0.6
	54	33	146,391	8.0	4.5
	19	6	69,650	3.8	0.9
	18	10	71,052	3.9	1.4
	4	2	13,494	0.7	0.3
	2	2	9,356	0.5
	2	1	4,170	0.2	0.3
	1		1,618	0.1
	0		6,125	0.3	+0.2
	0	1	2,036	0.1	—
	0		281	0.0	0.1
	87	11	207,207	11.4	0.2
Total	883		1,820,125	100

Authority	Total	Details
Carlow	8	7
Cavan	11	11
Clare	13	10
Cork City	11	8
Cork County	16	24
Donegal	14	8
Dublin City	12	10
Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown	7	9
Fingal	4	5
Galway City	2	3
Galway County	10	10
Kerry	11	8
Kildare	10	7
Kilkenny	8	11
Laois	11	9
Leitrim	10	8
Limerick City	2	5
Limerick County	12	12
Longford	9	10
Louth	9	7
Mayo	12	15
Meath	12	9
Monaghan	5	7
Offaly	8	6
Roscommon	9	10
Sligo	10	10
South Dublin	6	3
North Tipperary	10	5
South Tipperary	10	8
Waterford City	1	4
Waterford County	7	11
Westmeath	9	8
Wexford	6	7
Wicklow	6	7

Borough and town councils

Party	Seats	±
	240	49
	175	16
	87
	71	30
	14	9
	13	6
Others	144	12
Total	744

Borough councils

Authority	Other
Clonmel	3
Drogheda	3
Kilkenny	4
Sligo	4
Wexford	2
Total	16

Town councils

Town	Total
Ardee	2
Arklow	3
Athlone	4
Athy	2
Balbriggan	2
Ballina	4
Ballinasloe	3
Ballybay	3
Ballyshannon	3
Bandon	3
Bantry	4
Belturbet	4
Birr	2
Boyle	3
Bray	3
Buncrana	3
Bundoran	5
Carlow	3
Carrickmacross	3
Carrick-on-Suir	3
Cashel	2
Castlebar	3
Castleblayney	3
Cavan	4
Clonakilty	2
Clones	3
Cobh	1
Cootehill	3
Dundalk	3
Dungarvan	2
Edenderry	5
Ennis	3
Enniscorthy	3
Fermoy
Gorey	4
Granard	3
Greystones	3
Kells	4
Kilkee	5
Killarney	3
Kilrush	4
Kinsale	2
Leixlip	2
Letterkenny	4
Lismore	4
Listowel	4
Longford	2
Loughrea	3
Macroom	2
Mallow	2
Midleton	3
Monaghan	3
Mountmellick	6
Muine Bheag	5
Mullingar	2
Naas	3
Navan	4
Nenagh	3
Newbridge	3
New Ross	4
Passage West	3
Portlaoise	3
Shannon	2
Skibbereen	2
Templemore	4
Thurles	1
Tipperary	2
Tralee	4
Tramore	3
Trim	2
Tuam	1
Tullamore	3
Westport	3
Wicklow	2
Youghal	3

Notes

References

Donnelly, Seán. (14 June 2004). "The best local election turnout in nearly 20 years". The Irish Times.
(15 June 2004). "'A very bad performance' – Ahern". The Irish Times.
McDonald, Frank. (15 June 2004). "FF will find loss of power a bitter pill to swallow". The Irish Times.
O'Halloran, Marie. (15 June 2004). "Politicians hit by dual-mandate ban opt to pass on council mantle to their relatives". The Irish Times.
(10 June 2004). "91,000 people are eligible to vote". Wicklow People.

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