Adrian Kavanagh, 24 June 2013

The previous series of posts have looked at how the homes bases of sitting County and City match up against the new local election constituency boundaries, with this analysis finding that there are some local electoral areas in which the current number of incumbents resident in these  outnumber the number of seats being allocated to these areas at the 2014 local elections, and often to quite notable degrees. But these analyses did not look at the other group of existing local representatives, namely the Borough and Town Councillor grouping which will be abolished at the next local elections. Town Councillor numbers are especially high in some counties and in relation to some specific local electoral areas and this could make for some highly intense competition for party nominations and seats in these areas should outgoing Town Councillors seek to remain in politics.

One assumption might be that the overall number of current local representatives is somewhat lower than the sum of all City/Councillors (883) and Borough/Town Councillors (744), given that some politicians may be serving both as County Councillors and as Town Councillors. These “dual mandate councillors” do indeed account for a certain proportion of the Town Councillor grouping, but not to the level that might be expected. Indeed, there are some regions in the state where the number of such dual-mandate councillors are relatively low and only account for a small proportion of the total number of Town Councillors in these areas. The knock-on effect here is that the total number of local representatives (County Councillors and Town Councillors) is increased, by default, and the overall number of local representatives in these areas can prove to be especially high, especially if two or more Town Council authorities fall within the area of new local election constituencies.  This could make for a highly potent political climate in these areas as more and more outgoing local representatives are left fighting for fewer and fewer positions in the next local authority, especially in light of the County Council seat number reductions involving most of the more rural counties.

My analysis suggests that only 160 of these 744 Borough/Town Councillors are “dual-mandate councillors”, meaning that  584 of the total number of Town Councillors, or 78% of these, are non-dual mandate councillors. If we add this number to the total number of City and County Councillors, this means that there are an estimated 1,467 local representatives currently in the state, either as City/County Councillors or Borough/Town Councillors or both, with this number to be reduced to 949 City and County Councillors after next May’s local elections. In other words, over 35% of the current number of local representatives in the state are certain not to be holding local authority seats following next May’s local elections, with this percentage to increase in line with the level of seats that will be won in these elections by non-incumbent challengers.

Females account for a slightly higher percentage of the Borough/Town Councillor ranks than they do in the case of representation at the Dail or City/County Council levels. In all, I estimate that there are 176 female Town/Borough Councillors and 568 males, meaning that females account for 23.7% of the total number of Town/Borough Councillors at present.

In the rest of this post I will try to identify the current list of Town/Borough Councillors across the different political parties and political groupings and identify how their numbers match up with the new local election boundaries being used for next year’s City and County Council elections.  Note that not all of the new local election constituency areas contain an existing Town/County Council area, as would be the case with the City Council areas and with most of the County Council areas in the Dublin region (with the sole exception of Balbriggan) but there would also be no Town Councils located in some of the more rural electoral areas (such as Glenties in Donegal and Conamara in Galway) in other parts of the state. For historical reasons, there are also no Town Councils located in some of the more urbanised electoral areas in the County Council areas, including Athenry-Oranmore in Galway County, Maynooth in Kildare, Ashbourne, Ratoath and Laytown-Bettystown in Meath and Portarlington-Graiguecullen in Laois.

Now to look at Town Councillor numbers across the different parties and political groupings. Note that * denotes a non-dual mandate Borough/Town Councillors – i.e. Borough/Town Councillors who do not also hold seats at the County Council level.

Fine Gael

As is the case at the national and City/County Council levels, Fine Gael is currently the largest party at the Borough/Town Council level with 214 party representatives (29% of the total number of these) at this level, 66 of which (31%) are female. There are party representatives at a Borough/Town Council level at present in all of the proposed local electoral areas that contain these. There are especially high numbers of Fine Gael Borough/Town Councillors in some local electoral areas, but most notably the West Cork (twelve Fine Gael Town Councillors and only two of these are dual-mandate councillors)  and West Clare (seven Fine Gael Town Councillors and none of these are dual-mandate councillors) electoral areas.

Update: Longford Town Councillor, James Keogh, announced he was leaving Fine Gael in November 2012 and joined the independent ranks (see below).

Update: Naas town councillor, Alan O’Kelly, has stood down.

Update: After losing out on the Fine Gael nomination for the County Council elections for the Monaghan electoral area, Tommy Hagan has subsequently left the party in protest against the October 2013 Budget.

Update: Naas town councillor and current Naas Mayor, Emer McDaid, will not be contesting next year’s local elections.

Westport Town Councillor, Myles Staunton, has confirmed that he will not be looking to contest next year’s local elections.

Fianna Fail

Fianna Fail has the second largest number of Borough/Town Councillors in the state, with 184 Borough/Town Councillors (25% of the total number of these) amounting to roughly twice the number currently held by the third largest political party at this level, the Labour Party. 39 of the Fianna Fail Borough/Town Councillors are female, amounting to 21% of the total number of Fianna Fail representatives at this level. As with Fine Gael, there are especially high numbers of Fianna Fail Borough/Town Councillors in the West Cork (eight Fianna Fail Town Councillors and none of these are dual-mandate councillors)  and West Clare (seven Fianna Fail Town Councillors and none of these are dual-mandate councillors) electoral areas. But there are also relatively high numbers of Fianna Fail Town Councillors associated with some of the other electoral areas, including Bandon-Kinsale in Cork County, Birr and Tullamore in Offaly and Gorey in Wexford.

Bandon Town Councillor, Margaret Murphy O’Mahony, has officially announced her intention to seek a party nomination to contest next year’s local elections.

Fianna Fail’s Lisa Culbert was co-opted onto Letterkenny Town Council in June 2013 to replace her later father, Tadhg. She has not ruled out the possibility of contesting the County Council elections according to the June 7th edition of the Donegal News.

Sligo Town Councillors, Patsy Barry and Jude Devins, have confirmed that they will not be seeking a nomination to contest the County Council elections in the Sligo electoral area.

Ballyshannon Town Councillor, Billy Grimes, has confirmed that he will not be seeking a nomination to contest the 2014 Local Elections.

Labour

The Labour Party is the third largest political party/grouping at the Borough/Town Council level, with it being estimated that there are currently 89 Labour Party Borough/Town Councillors, accounting for 12% of the current number of these.  This is a relatively lower proportion relative to the party’s share of representation at the City and County levels but it can be explained by the relatively high level of Labour representation on the different City Councils.  18 of the Labour Borough/Town Councillors are female (20% of these).  More so than Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, there are notable geographical variations in terms of the level of Labour Party representation across the different Borough/Town Councils. There are some electoral areas that contain relatively high levels of Labour Party representatives on Borough/Town Councils, including Kanturk-Mallow in Cork County, Athy in Kildare and Dungarvan-Lismore in Waterford. But there are a number of electoral areas, and indeed counties, in which the Labour Party has little or no representation at the Borough/Town Council level; indeed there are a number of Borough/Town Councils associated with some very large towns on which the Labour Party currently has no representatives, including Dundalk in Louth, Ballina in Mayo, Ballinasloe in Galway and Portlaoise in Laois. 

Sadly, Enniscorthy Town Councillor, Pat Cody, passed away on 18th June 2013 – Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.

Update: Wexford Town councillor, Davy Hynes, resigned from the Labour Party earlier in 2013 and Cllr. Ted Howlin is retiring

Update – Athy Town Councillor, Thomas Redmond, has defected from the Labour Party to Sinn Fein.

Update – Lar Byrne (Tullamore) has confirmed that he will not be contesting next year’s local elections.

Update: Sean O’Grady (Killarney) has announced that he is leaving the Labour Party and joining the independent ranks, but it is not yet clear whether he will contest the 2014 Local Elections.

Sinn Fein

Sinn Fein currently has 72 representatives across the different Borough/Town Councils across the state, with the party accounting for 10% of the these. 13 of the Sinn Fein representatives, or 18% of these, are female.  In a similar vein to the Labour Party – but perhaps to an even greater degree – there are notable geographical variations in terms of Sinn Fein representation at this level. There are a number of electoral areas, and indeed counties, where the party has no Borough/Town Councillors based in these. By contrast, there are some areas where Sinn Fein representation at this level is very strong, but most notably in a number of Border counties including Monaghan (where the party currently has ten Town Councillors), Donegal and Louth.

Sligo Town Councillor, Chris McManus, has confirmed that he will not be seeking a nomination to contest the County Council elections in the Sligo electoral area.

Fermoy Town Councillor, Seamus Coleman, will not be seeking a nomination to contest the County Council elections in order to allow him focus on his role as county organiser for Sinn Fein at these elections.

James Cunningham, a Town Councillor for Castleblaney, has announced that he will be standing down at next year’s local elections and will not be seeking to contest these.

Willie O’Regan stood down from Mallow Town Council in October 2013 and Melissa Mullane is being co-opted to replace him.

Caoimhe Ní Shluáin, who had been co-opted to replace Peadar Toibin on Navan Town Council after the 2011 General Election, resigned from that council in September 2013 and the October 26th edition of The Meath Chronicle reports that Sinead Burke has been co-opted to replace her.

Alan Hand resigned from Portlaoise Town Council in Autumn 2013 and Clare Spollen was co-opted to replace him in late November 2013.

The Green Party

The Green Party currently has 12 representatives at the Borough/Town Council level and indeed the party’s swathe of Town Councillors account for the vast bulk of its current number of elected representatives following on the poor results in the 2009 City and County Council elections and the 2011 General Election. Green Party representation at this level is spatially clustered across a small number of counties and electoral areas, with the party lacking representation on the majority of Borough/Town Councils across the state. It is interesting to note that most of the counties where the party does have Town Councillors tend to be areas in which the party would not have traditionally done well in at previous elections, including areas such as Wexford and Monaghan.

Workers and Unemployed Action Group and other Small Parties

In addition to the Green Party, there are a number of other smaller parties that currently enjoy representation on different Borough and Town Councils. As the table above shows, the party that especially stands out in this regard is the Workers and Unemployed Action Group, which currently has six local representatives on Town Council in the area now to be covered by the new Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir electoral areas in Tipperary. This leaves the Workers and Unemployed Action Group as the sixth largest political party in the state in terms of level of representation across different Borough and Town Councils in the state, with the seventh largest being the Socialist Party (with representatives in Louth and Fingal).

Independents/Non-Party

The  non-party grouping accounts for a significant number of Borough and Town Councillors in the state, with there being 163 non-party Borough and Town Councillors in the state (22% of the total number of these), making this comfortably the third largest political grouping in the state (behind Fianna Fail but ahead of Labour) at the Borough/Town Council level. 33 non-party councillors are female (20% of the total number). The non-party ranks are likely to increase over the coming months, as and when more defections from the political parties take place (and there may well be an increase in the number of these during the candidate selection season if Borough/Town Councillors decide to run as independents after failing to win a party nomination to contest the May 2014 local elections). There is non-party representation on most Borough/Town Councils in the states, although there are occasional exceptions here. But there are a number of other cases in which non-party members account for a significantly large proportion of the total number of Borough/Town Councillors. Good examples here include the Cavan-Belturbert, Ennis, Shannon, East Cork (Midleton TC), Cashel-Tipperary, Templemore-Thurles, Arklow and Wicklow electoral areas.

Update: Rioghnagh Bracken has announced her intention to step down from Naas Town Council ahead of the May 2014 elections.

Please note that this analysis is based on the best level of information that I have at present and these details will be regularly updated and corrected as and when further information comes my way. Thanks to Cllr. Aaron O’Sullivan and Ken Curtin for helping to fill in the gaps in relation to/update some of the details I had for Town Councils (Youghal/Midleton) in the East Cork area.