Adrian Kavanagh, 2nd September 2019 (with subsequent updates – latest update: 28 June 2020)

The 2019 Local Elections resulted in the election of 949 City and County Councillors. Since that election took place on 24th May 2019, I have estimated that at least 66 of the successful candidates in these elections have either stood down, been “promoted”, or have sadly passed away. Moreover, at least one of the new Councillors co-opted to replace these Councillors have themselves resigned from their new role, bringing the total number of City/County Councllors who have either stood down, been “promoted”, or have sadly passed away up to 67 (7.06% of the total number).

45 of the former Councillors in this group are male (67.2%) and 22 are female (32.8%).

Up to the election of a new Taoiseach on 27th June 2020, 26 (44.1%) of the co-options/new Councillors had been male, while 33 were female (55.9%). This meant that by that date the total number of female City and County Councillors had increased notably (relative to the number of female candidates elected at the May 2019 elections); going from 226 (23.8% of total number of Councillors elected at the 2019 Local Elections) to 243 (25.6% of total number of City/County Councillors, at that point). With a large number (six) of female Councillors featuring among the Taoiseach’s nominees to the Seanad (as announced on 27th June 2020), the overall number of female City/County Councillors, as of now, has fallen back to 237 (25.2% of the total number of City/County Councillors, as of now). This number of female Councillors may increase again after the co-options to replace the Taoiseach’s nominees on different City and County Council have been decided on.

As of now, a large proportion of this group of former Councillors are people who were “promoted” to take up positions in Dáil or Seanad Eireann. One of these Councillors stood down due to being elected to the European Parliament on the same day as the County and City Council elections in May 2019, while two other Councillors were elected for two different electoral areas at these elections and, hence, had to stand down as Councillor for one of these electoral areas. In all, 60 of the former Councillors (90.9% of the total number) fall into this group of “promoted”, or “elected for two seats”, Councillors.

As of now, the largest number of co-options by political party involves the Green Party, with 17 Green Party Councillors having stood down from their Council seats. With the exceptions of Laura Swift and Lawrence Hemmings, all of these former Green Party councillors stood down in order to take up seats on the European Parliament, or to take up seats in Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann. This means that 30% of the Green Party Councillors elected in May 2019 have gone on to secure “higher electoral office” in Europe or in Leinster House.

The next highest number of co-options involving a political party/grouping involves Fianna Fáil (13), followed by Fine Gael (11) and Sinn Féin (11).

In addition to the series of co-options, as outlined/discussed above, there has also been some changes in political party/grouping affiliations involving Councillors who were elected in May 2019. I estimate that, at present, at least 7 Councillors (0.74% of the total) would fall into this category. 2 female Councillors falls into this category; a number that accounts for 25.0% of the total number of Councillors in this particular grouping and which is equivalent to 0.88% of the number of female Councillors who were elected in 2019. (By contrast, 0.69% of the number of the male Councillors who were elected in 2019 (or subsequently co-opted) have changed their political party/political grouping since June 2019.)

One of the main impacts of these changes of Councillor political affiliations has been to change the number of City or County Council members associated with different political parties or groupings. As of now, I estimate that the number of City or County Council seats held by different political parties or groupings stands are as follows: Fianna Fáil 277, Fine Gael 254, Independents/Non Party and Other 198 (including Independents 4 Change (3), Workers and Unemployed Action (1), Independent Left (1), Kerry Independent Alliance (1)), Sinn Féin 81, Labour Party 55, Green Party 50, Social Democrats 18, Solidarity-People Before Profit 11 (People Before Profit 7, Solidarity 4), Aontú 3, Workers Party 1, Republican Sinn Féin 1.

In the fluctuating political climate leading up to the next local elections in 2024, further changes of political allegiance are almost guaranteed – and some of these I may well not be aware of yet! – but I will update these figures, as and when I become aware of further changes.

As a result of the co-options and changes of party/grouping that have taken place since May 2019, the number of female City/County Councillors have increased for the Green Party (by eight), Fianna Fáil (by four) and for Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, Social Democrats and the Independents grouping (by one). The current numbers of female Councillors by party/grouping (as estimated on 7th October 2019) may be viewed in Figure 1.

The significant increase in the number of female Green Party Councillors due to the co-options immediately following on General Election 2020 means that there are now four parties/groupings which have more female Councillors than male Councillors; Aontú, Solidarity-People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and the Green Party.