An election to all 40 seats on Meath County Council was held on 24 May 2019 as part of the

2019 Irish local elections The 2019 Irish local elections were held in all local authorities in Ireland on Friday, 24 May 2019, on the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election and a referendum easing restrictions on divorce. Each local government area is divid ...

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

was divided into 6

local electoral area A local electoral area (LEA; ) is an electoral area for elections to Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authorities in Ireland. All elections in the Republic of Ireland, elections use the single transferable vote. Republic of Ir ...

s (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the

electoral system An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, nonprofit organizations and inf ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

by means of the

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

(PR-STV).

Boundary review

Following the recommendations of the 2018 LEA boundary review committee, the LEAs used at the 2014 Meath County Council election were adjusted to reflect population changes revealed by the 2016 census. The boundary committee recommended that Navan be designated a borough district. This was implemented in the initial statutory instrument, but was reversed as being contrary to

Local Government Act 2001 The Local Government Act 2001 (No. 37) was enacted by the Oireachtas on 21 July 2001 to reform local government in Ireland. Most of the provisions of the Act came into operation on 1 January 2002. The act was a restatement and amendment of pr ...

Overview

Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...

lost 1 seat but remained the largest party with 12 seats but with an increased vote share.

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

gained 2 seats to return with 12 seats also but their vote share reduced compared to 2014.

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

lost 5 seats and was reduced to having representation solely in Ashbourne, Kells and Navan. One of the Sinn Féin losses in Navan was to Emer Tóibín of

Aontú Aontú (; "Unity") is a conservative Irish republican political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It has been led by Peadar Tóibín since its foundation in January 2019. The party holds socially conservative ...

, a sister of

Peadar Tóibín Peadar Tóibín (; born 19 June 1974) is an Irish politician who has served as leader of Aontú since January 2019. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Meath West constituency since 2011. He previously served as Chair of the Committee on ...

TD. Through Annie Hoey, Labour regained a seat on the council in Laytown–Bettystown, and in Trim Ronan Moore won a seat for the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

. The number of

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

councillors increased from 9 to 10. Sharon Keogan was elected in both the Ashbourne LEA and the Laytown–Bettystown LEA, becoming the first woman in Ireland elected to two electoral areas. She initially objected to being required to choose one of two seats, but later chose Laytown–Bettystown.

Boundary review

Overview

Results by party

Results by local electoral area

Ashbourne

Kells

Laytown–Bettystown

Navan

Ratoath

Trim

Footnotes

Results by gender

Changes after 2019

Co-options

Changes in affiliation

References

Sources