# 2014 Carlow County Council election

An election to all 18 seats on Carlow County Council was held on 23 May 2014 as part of the 2014 Irish local elections. County Carlow was divided into two local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

## Administrative changes

Carlow County Council had been allocated 21 seats under the Local Government Act 2001. In November 2012, Phil Hogan, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, appointed a Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee to review the allocation of seats and the local electoral areas across local authorities. In the case of Carlow County Council, it recommended an decrease to 18 seats. In addition, the town councils of Carlow and Muinebheag were abolished. This was implemented by the Local Government Reform Act 2014. County Carlow was redrawn into two electoral areas, a reduction from five.

## Analysis

While Fine Gael remained the largest party after the election, in terms of seats though not in terms of vote share, they lost two-fifths of their councillors. Their colleagues in government, the Labour Party, lost three-fifths of their councillors being reduced to just 2 seats. Fianna Fáil gained a seat to return 5 members and reported a higher vote than Fine Gael but the big winners were Sinn Féin who won 3 seats to supplant Labour as the traditional third-largest party.

## Results by party

| Party | Party | Seats | ± | 1st pref | FPv% | ±% |
| | Fine Gael | 6 | −4 | 5,808 | 27.0 | |
| | Fianna Fáil | 5 | +1 | 6,207 | 28.9 | |
| | Sinn Féin | 3 | +3 | 2,723 | 12.7 | |
| | Labour | 2 | −3 | 2,830 | 13.2 | |
| | Independent | 2 | — | 3,010 | 14.0 | |
| Total | Total | 18 | −3 | | 100.0 | — |

## Results by local electoral area

^ *: Outgoing councillor.

### Carlow

Carlow: 10 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| | Fianna Fáil | Jennifer Murnane O'Connor | 13.04 | 1,530 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | John Pender | 11.54 | 1,354 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Sinn Féin | John Cassin | 9.18 | 1,077 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Fine Gael | Brian O'Donoghue | 8.68 | 1,018 | 1,025 | 1,073 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Fintan Phelan | 8.62 | 1,011 | 1,128 | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Sinn Féin | Jim Deane | 7.18 | 842 | 878 | 900 | 902 | 908 | 909 | 917 | 940 | 961 | 981 | 1,042 | 1,174 | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Ann Ahern née Long | 5.76 | 676 | 769 | 827 | 852 | 853 | 854 | 858 | 873 | 874 | 916 | 961 | 981 | 987 | 1,007 | 1,063 |
| | Independent | Walter Lacey | 5.39 | 632 | 680 | 689 | 696 | 697 | 697 | 708 | 738 | 793 | 852 | 894 | 971 | 1,013 | 1,039 | 1,116 |
| | Labour | William Paton | 5.20 | 610 | 617 | 694 | 695 | 695 | 697 | 699 | 704 | 712 | 738 | 794 | 818 | 828 | 1,022 | 1,046 |
| | Fine Gael | Fergal Browne | 4.64 | 544 | 563 | 575 | 578 | 578 | 578 | 579 | 583 | 610 | 621 | 654 | 662 | 664 | 728 | 912 |
| | Fine Gael | Wayne Fennell | 3.87 | 454 | 468 | 472 | 475 | 475 | 475 | 475 | 479 | 494 | 502 | 529 | 537 | 537 | 552 | |
| | Fine Gael | Tom O'Neill | 3.52 | 413 | 436 | 439 | 444 | 445 | 445 | 446 | 454 | 461 | 489 | 522 | 532 | 533 | 568 | 686 |
| | Fine Gael | Kathy Walsh | 3.11 | 365 | 369 | 401 | 401 | 401 | 402 | 404 | 409 | 412 | 415 | 429 | 436 | 439 | | |
| | Anti-Austerity Alliance | Ned Costigan | 2.47 | 290 | 301 | 306 | 307 | 308 | 309 | 315 | 366 | 385 | 391 | 402 | | | | |
| | Labour | Caroline Townsend | 2.40 | 281 | 309 | 317 | 323 | 323 | 323 | 325 | 331 | 337 | 391 | | | | | |
| | Labour | Des Hurley | 1.90 | 223 | 256 | 258 | 260 | 260 | 260 | 265 | 270 | 282 | 282 | | | | | |
| | Independent | Declan Alcock | 1.64 | 192 | 202 | 206 | 209 | 209 | 209 | 216 | 224 | | | | | | | |
| | Direct Democracy | Saoire O'Brien | 1.41 | 166 | 173 | 175 | 177 | 177 | 177 | 182 | | | | | | | | |
| | Independent | Pat Finnerty | 0.27 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | | | | | | | | |
| | Independent | Conor Dowling | 0.19 | 22 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 29 | | | | | | | | |
| Electorate: 23,431 Valid: 11,732 (50.07%) Spoilt: 139 Quota: 1,067 Turnout: 11,871 (50.66%) |||||||||||||||||||

### Muinebheag

Muinebheag: 8 seats :
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count | Count |
| Party | Party | Candidate | FPv% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| | Independent | Charlie Murphy | 14.14 | 1,377 | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Fine Gael | Tommy Kinsella | 11.60 | 1,130 | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Labour | Willie Quinn | 10.66 | 1,038 | 1,066 | 1,083 | | | | | | | | | |
| | Sinn Féin | Andy Gladney | 8.26 | 804 | 825 | 827 | 840 | 858 | 885 | 926 | 974 | 1,176 | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | Arthur McDonald | 8.09 | 788 | 803 | 806 | 809 | 851 | 863 | 1,018 | 1,032 | 1,081 | 1,099 | | |
| | Fine Gael | Michael Doran | 7.90 | 769 | 775 | 777 | 790 | 805 | 814 | 838 | 882 | 939 | 949 | 950 | 1,107 |
| | Fine Gael | John Murphy | 5.79 | 564 | 610 | 619 | 630 | 634 | 683 | 686 | 751 | 756 | 760 | 760 | 827 |
| | Fine Gael | Denis Foley | 5.66 | 551 | 564 | 570 | 578 | 620 | 629 | 664 | 683 | 727 | 747 | 752 | 824 |
| | Fianna Fáil | P.J. Kavanagh | 5.05 | 492 | 536 | 538 | 566 | 567 | 598 | 634 | 668 | 701 | 711 | 712 | 777 |
| | Labour | Jim Townsend | 4.73 | 461 | 474 | 475 | 486 | 516 | 554 | 586 | 639 | 678 | 698 | 701 | |
| | Anti-Austerity Alliance | Christy Cormac | 4.49 | 437 | 447 | 448 | 459 | 481 | 492 | 523 | 586 | | | | |
| | Fianna Fáil | David O'Brien | 3.66 | 356 | 367 | 368 | 376 | 399 | 407 | | | | | | |
| | Independent | Matthew English-Hayden | 3.42 | 333 | 356 | 357 | 390 | 395 | | | | | | | |
| | Independent | Billy Nolan | 2.68 | 261 | 303 | 304 | 322 | 324 | 324 | | | | | | |
| | Labour | Ken Hickey | 2.23 | 217 | 220 | 220 | 222 | | | | | | | | |
| | Independent | Liam Foley | 1.37 | 133 | 150 | 151 | | | | | | | | | |
| | Independent | Pat Finnerty | 0.29 | 28 | 30 | 30 | | | | | | | | | |
| Electorate: 17,599 Valid: 9,739 (55.46%) Spoilt: 139 Quota: 1,083 Turnout: 9,878 (56.26%) ||||||||||||||||
* 1 2 Resigned, see below for changes

## Changes
### Co-options

| Party | Party | Outgoing | LEA | Reason | Date | Co-optee |
| | Fianna Fáil | Jennifer Murnane-O'Connor | Carlow | Elected to 25th Seanad in April 2016 | 9 June 2016 | Ken Murnane |
| | Fianna Fáil | Anne Ahern | Carlow | Appointed school principal | 9 October 2017 | Andrea Dalton |

### Changes in affiliation

| Name | LEA | Elected as | Elected as | New affiliation | New affiliation | Date |
| John Cassin | Carlow | | Sinn Féin | | Independent | February 2019 |

## Local electoral areas

Carlow County Council was divided into the two local electoral areas (LEAs), defined by electoral divisions.
| LEA | Electoral divisions | Seats |
| Carlow | Ballinacarrig, Burton Hall, Carlow Rural, Carlow Urban, Graigue Urban and Johnstown. | 10 |
| Muinebeag | Agha, Ballintemple, Ballon, Ballyellin, Ballymoon, Ballymurphy, Borris, Clogrenan, Clonegall, Coonogue, Corries, Cranemore, Fennagh, Garryhill, Glynn, Kilbride, Killedmond, Kyle, Leighlinbridge, Marley, Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Rural, Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) Urban, Myshall, Nurney, Oldleighlin, Rathanna, Rathornan, Rathrush, Ridge, Shangarry, Sliguff, Templepeter, Tinnahinch | 8 |