Local government in the Republic of Ireland

Local government in the state is governed by Local Government Acts 1925 to 2024, the principal act of which is the Local Government Act 2001. The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 is the founding document of the present system. The Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland (1999) provided for constitutional recognition of local government for the first time in Ireland in a new Article 28A. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 changed the structure by the abolition of all town councils and the merger of certain county councils. The reforms came into effect in 2014, to coincide with that year's local elections.

Historical development

Pre-independence

The county was a unit of judicial and administrative government introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion. The country was shired in a number of phases with County Wicklow being the last to be shired in 1625. County Tipperary was divided into two judicial counties (or ridings) following the establishment of assize courts in 1838. At various times in the past, other entities at a level below that of the county or county borough have been employed in Ireland for various judicial, administrative and revenue collecting purposes. Some of these, such as the barony and grand jury, no longer fulfil their original purpose while retaining only vestigial legal relevance in the modern state. Others, such as the poor law unions, have been transformed into entities still in use by the modern state, but again, their original functions have been substantially altered.

Sixty years later, a more radical reorganisation of local government took place with the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. This Act established a county council for each of thirty-three Irish administrative counties (County Tipperary was divided with North Riding and South Riding) and a county borough corporation in six cities that were separate from their respective counties. Each county was divided into urban and rural districts. Urban districts in the area of five municipal boroughs retained the style and title of a borough with a corporation. In all other places, a district council was established. Smaller towns retained town commissioners within rural districts.

Development since 1922

The geographic remit of the Irish Free State, established in December 1922 pursuant to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, was confined to 26 of the traditional counties of Ireland, which included 27 administrative counties and four county boroughs.

Rural districts were abolished everywhere except County Dublin in 1925, and in County Dublin in 1930.

In 1994 County Dublin and the borough of Dún Laoghaire were abolished with their administrative areas being divided among three new counties: Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. The state was divided into eight Regional Authorities.

The Local Government Act 2001 simplified the local government structure, with the principal tier of local government (county and city councils) covering the entire territory of the state and having general responsibility for all functions of local government except in 80 towns within the territory of county councils, where the lower tier (town councils) existed with more limited functions. The five county boroughs of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, and Limerick were re-styled city councils, with the same status in law as county councils. The lower-level tiers of borough corporations, urban district councils and town commissioners were reduced to a single tier of town council, with five permitted to retain the title of borough council: the city of Kilkenny and the four towns of Sligo, Drogheda, Clonmel, and Wexford.

The Local Government Reform Act 2014 enacted changes which took effect after the 2014 local elections:

Town councils and borough councils were abolished.
All counties outside Dublin were divided into municipal districts, with county councillors also being district councillors.
Limerick City Council and Limerick County Council were dissolved and succeeded by Limerick City and County Council.
Waterford City Council and Waterford County Council were dissolved and succeeded by Waterford City and County Council.
North Tipperary County Council and South Tipperary County Council were dissolved and succeeded by Tipperary County Council.
Councillors' power to overturn planning decisions was removed.
A portion of Local services to be funded by the property tax.
The 8 Regional Authorities were dissolved and their functions transferred to the Regional Assemblies.

The civic and ceremonial status of existing cities, boroughs and larger towns was retained after being merged with counties. Those municipal districts that included existing cities or boroughs merged became either "metropolitan districts" or "borough districts". They continue to have mayors as do those districts containing county towns. In all other councils the equivalent office is known as Chair or Cathaoirleach. Each municipal district was issued with a new statutory charter setting out its powers alongside any historic charters that already existed.

At the 2019 Limerick City and County Council election, voters approved a proposal in a plebiscite on the establishment of a directly elected mayor for Limerick City and County by a vote of 52.4%. Support for directly elected mayors has been almost equally divided when put to a popular vote. While the Limerick plebiscite passed by a small margin, voters in Waterford and Cork both rejected the proposal by equally small margins in 2019. The 2024 Limerick mayoral election took place in June 2024, with John Moran, an independent candidate being inaugurated as the first directly elected mayor in Ireland on 21 June 2024.

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County and city councils

European Union territorial divisions

Eurostat, the statistical Directorate-General of the European Union, uses a geographical hierarchy system called the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) for various statistical and financial disbursement purposes. The entirety of Ireland is a First-level NUTS of the European Union. The Second level (NUTS 2) divides Ireland into three regions which have a Regional Assembly. The Third level (NUTS 3) divides these regions into 8, each of which is a strategic planning area. Below this are local administrative units (LAUs) which are the basic statistical components for the regions; in Ireland these are the local electoral areas (LEAs).

Funding

Following the abolition of domestic property rates in the late 1970s, local councils found it extremely difficult to raise money. The shortfall from the abolition of property rates led to the introduction of service charges for water and refuse, but these were highly unpopular in certain areas and led in certain cases to large-scale non-payment. Arising from a decision made by the Rainbow Government domestic water charges were abolished on 1 January 1997 placing further pressure on local government funding.

The Department of Finance is a significant source of funding at present, and additional sources are rates on commercial and industrial property, housing rents, service charges and borrowing. The dependence on Exchequer has led to charges that Ireland has an overly centralised system of local government. Numerous studies carried out by consultants on behalf of the Government have recommended the reintroduction of some form of local taxation/charging regime, but these were generally seen as politically unacceptable.

Since 1999, motor tax is paid into the Local Government Fund, established by the Local Government Act 1998, and is distributed on a "Needs and Resources" basis.

In 2013, a local property tax was introduced to provide funding for local authorities.

Responsibilities

Local government bodies have responsibility for such matters as planning, local roads, sanitation, and libraries. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has responsibility for local authorities and related services. Fingal County Manager David O'Connor: "Local Authorities perform both a representational and an operational role because the Irish system of Local Government encompasses both democratic representation and public administration."

Local government has progressively lost control over services to national and regional bodies, particularly since the foundation of the state in 1922. For instance, local control of education has largely been passed to Education and Training Boards, established in 2013, while other bodies such as the Department of Education and Youth still hold significant powers. In 1970 local government lost its health remit, which had been already eroded by the creation of the Department of Health in 1947, to the health board system. In the 1990s the National Roads Authority took overall authority for national roads projects, supported by local authorities who maintain the non-national roads system. The whole area of waste management has been transformed since the 1990s, with a greater emphasis on environmental protection, recycling infrastructure and higher environmental standards. In 1993 the Environmental Protection Agency was established to underpin a more pro-active and co-ordinated national and local approach to protecting the environment. An Bord Pleanála was established in 1977 (restructured as An Coimisiún Pleanála in 2025) and assumed some of the planning responsibilities which had been the responsibility of local authorities. Additionally, the trend has been to remove decision-making from elected councillors to full-time professionals and officials. In particular, every city and county has a manager, who is the chief executive but is also a public servant appointed by the Public Appointments Service (formerly the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission), and is thus answerable to the national government as well as the local council, in theory. Therefore, local policy decisions are sometimes heavily influenced by the TDs who represent the local constituency in Dáil Éireann (the main chamber of parliament), and may be dictated by national politics rather than local needs.

Local Government Management Agency

The Local Government Management Agency is an agency of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage which provides a range of professional services to local authorities. It was established in 2012. It provides a central data management service to enable the collection of the Home Charge, the Non Principle Private Residence (NPPR) charge and the proposed water charge.