Number of county councillors to rise by 7% as minister accepts reforms

The number of county councillors across the country is set to increase by 7% in next year’s local elections as a result of sweeping changes to council sizes in all local authority areas.

A report by the Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee recommended the addition of 66 new council seats on local authorities to bring the overall total to 949 councillors.

However, the increase comes at the expense of more than 80 town and borough councils which will be abolished resulting in the loss of some 744 elected officials on those bodies.

The Department of Environment estimated that the changes will achieve overall savings of €3.7m in running costs of local authorities.

The committee was set up to redraw electoral areas within existing council areas to allow the implementation of reforms by Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

They include the merger of city and county councils in Limerick and Waterford and the creation of a single council for Tipperary to replace the North and South riding divisions.

The terms of reference stipulated that there should be one councillor for every 4,830 population in each council with a minimum of 18 and maximum of 40 on all local authorities with the exception of Dublin City and Cork county councils.

In addition, there could be a maximum of four extra members in counties where there were existing town and borough councils.

Cork City was the only local authority to be excluded from the review as its current total of 31 councillors will remain unchanged.

Mr Hogan said last night that he had accepted in full all the committee’s recommendations.

“The review had a specific goal of improving balance and consistency in representational ratios in local government.”

Major increases in council seats are largely occurring in local authorities with large populations along the east coast including all four Dublin councils,

Fingal is the biggest net winner, gaining an extra 16 councillors to bring its total to the maximum 40.

Among the losers, the merger of the two councils in Waterford with result in the net loss of six seats to a total of 32, while the merger of Tipperary North and South councils will see a reduction of seven seats to 40.

Limerick will set its overall total number of councillors decrease by five to 40 as a result of merging its city and county councils.

Cork County Council will have an additional seven seats bringing its total to 55, although its existing 10 electoral areas will be reduced by two as Bantry and Skibbereen merge, as will Kanturk and Mallow.