# 1985 Irish local elections

The 1985 Irish local elections were held in all the local government areas on Thursday, 20 June 1985.
There were two tiers of local government areas. The state was divided into local government areas of administrative counties and county boroughs under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. Within administrative counties, there was a second tier in certain areas of boroughs governed by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 and the 1898 Act, urban districts governed by the 1898 Act, and towns with town commissioners governed by the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act 1854.
The elections had been postponed from June 1984. This allowed the Local Government (Reorganisation) Act 1985 to be enacted beforehand. Each local government area was divided into local electoral areas (LEAs) to be elected on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

## Administrative changes

Under the Local Government (Reorganisation) Act 1985:
* the borough of Galway (which previously had a 12-member borough council) ceased to be part of County Galway and became a county borough with its own 15-member city council.
* County Dublin was divided into three electoral counties: Dublin—Belgard (26 members), Dublin—Fingal (24 members) and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown (28 members). This was an increase from the 36 seats which had been in Dublin County Council. No separate election was to be held for the borough council of the corporation of Dún Laoghaire, with members elected for designated LEAs in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown to also be the members of the borough council.
* Dublin City Council was increased from 45 to 52 seats
Two Electoral Area Boundary Commissions proposed changes which were implemented by order of the minister:
* Increases in memberships of councils: Clare (one extra), Cork (two extra), Donegal (one extra), Kerry (one extra), Kildare (four extra), Limerick (one extra), Sligo (one extra) and Wicklow (three extra);
* Galway County Council was reduced from 31 to 30 members.

## Results
### County, city and town council seats

| Party | Party | Seats | ± | 1st pref | FPv% | ±% |
| | Fianna Fáil | 441 | 113 | 648,070 | 45.6 | +6.5 |
| | Fine Gael | 287 | 5 | 422,045 | 29.7 | -5.4 |
| | Labour | 60 | 15 | 109,681 | 7.9 | -4.2 |
| | Workers' Party | 20 | 13 | 43,006 | 3.0 | +0.8 |
| | Sinn Féin | 10 | 1 | 46,391 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
| | Independent Fianna Fáil | 6 | 2 | 11,073 | 0.8 | 0.0 |
| | Democratic Socialist | 3 | 3 | 5,472 | 0.4 | New |
| | Waterford People's Party | 1 | 1 | 1,681 | 0.1 | New |
| | Donegal Progressive Party | 1 | 0 | 1,506 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| | Green | 0 | 0 | 7,446 | 0.5 | New |
| | Communist | 0 | 0 | 593 | 0.0 | New |
| | Independent | | | 135,603 | 9.6 | -2.1 |
| Total | Total | | | 1,421,494 | 100.0 | — |

#### Note

Sinn Féin, Independent Fianna Fáil and the Waterford People's Party were not registered political parties.

### Counties and cities

| Authority | | FF | | FG | | Lab | | WP | | SF | | Ind/Oth | Total |
| Carlow | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 | | | | | 1 | 1 | 21 |
| Cavan | 14 | 14 | 10 | 10 | | | | | | | 1 | 1 | 25 |
| Clare | 17 | 17 | 8 | 8 | | | | | | | 7 | 7 | 32 |
| Cork City | 13 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | | | 3 | 3 | 31 |
| Cork County | 24 | 24 | 19 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | | | 2 | 2 | 48 |
| Donegal | 11 | 11 | 9 | 9 | | | | | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 29 |
| Dublin City | 26 | 26 | 13 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 52 |
| Dublin–Belgard | 13 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | | 1 | 1 | 26 |
| Dublin–Fingal | 13 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 | | | | | 1 | 1 | 24 |
| Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown | 13 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | | | | | 28 |
| Galway City | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | 2 | 2 | 15 |
| Galway County | 17 | 17 | 9 | 9 | | | | | | | 4 | 4 | 30 |
| Kerry | 13 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 | | | | | 4 | 4 | 27 |
| Kildare | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | | | | | 3 | 3 | 25 |
| Kilkenny | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 3 | | | | | 2 | 2 | 26 |
| Laois | 14 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 1 | | | | | 1 | 1 | 25 |
| Leitrim | 10 | 10 | 8 | 8 | | | | | | | 4 | 4 | 22 |
| Limerick City | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | | | | | 5 | 5 | 17 |
| Limerick County | 18 | 18 | 10 | 10 | | | | | | | | | 28 |
| Longford | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 21 |
| Louth | 12 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 2 | | | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 26 |
| Mayo | 15 | 15 | 14 | 14 | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 31 |
| Meath | 17 | 17 | 10 | 10 | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 29 |
| Monaghan | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | | | | | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 20 |
| North Tipperary | 12 | 12 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | | | | | 2 | 2 | 21 |
| Offaly | 12 | 12 | 6 | 6 | | | | | | | 3 | 3 | 21 |
| Roscommon | 13 | 13 | 8 | 8 | | | | | | | 5 | 5 | 26 |
| Sligo | 11 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 1 | | | | | 4 | 4 | 25 |
| South Tipperary | 14 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | | | | | 1 | 1 | 26 |
| Waterford City | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | | 2 | 2 | 15 |
| Waterford County | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 2 | | | | | | | 23 |
| Westmeath | 13 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | | | | | 2 | 2 | 23 |
| Wexford | 11 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | | | | | 3 | 3 | 21 |
| Wicklow | 13 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | | | 1 | 1 | 24 |
| Totals | 437 | 437 | 283 | 283 | 58 | 58 | 20 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 81 | 81 | 783 |