Meath County Council Meath County Council ( ga, Comhairle Chontae na Mí) is the authority responsible for local government in County Meath, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and co ...

election was held in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the ...

in Ireland on 24 May 2019 as part of that year's local elections. All 40 councillors were elected for a five-year term of office from 6

local electoral area A local electoral area (LEA; ga, Toghlimistéir Áitiúil) is an electoral area for elections to local authorities in Ireland. All elections use the single transferable vote. The Republic of Ireland is divided into 166 LEAs, with an average p ...

s (LEAs) by

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

. The 2018 LEA boundary review committee kept the LEAs used in the 2014 elections, with some boundary adjustments necessitated by population shifts revealed by the 2016 census. The changes were enacted by statutory instrument (S.I.) 628/2018, which was later amended by S.I. No. 8/2019.

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and 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 � ...

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

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...

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

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

had a very poor election losing 5 seats overall and being reduced to having representation solely in Ashbourne, Kells and Navan. One of the Sinn Féin losses in Navan was to Emer Tóibín, 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 Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the 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 political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

. The number

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

councillors increased from 9 to 10. Sharon Keogan secured election 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. The Ashbourne seat was filled by a controversial co-option.

Results by party

Results by local electoral area

Ashbourne

Kells

Laytown–Bettystown

Navan

Ratoath

Trim

Results by gender

Changes Since 2019

*† Ashbourne Independent Cllr Sharon Keogan resigned her seat after the local elections as she had been elected for 2 LEAs. Amanda Smith was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 1 July 2019. *†† Ashbourne Sinn Féin Cllr Darren O'Rourke was elected as a

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...

(TD) for Meath East at the 2020 general election. Aisling O'Neill was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 24 February 2020. *††† Kells Sinn Féin Cllr Johnny Guirke was elected as a TD for Meath West at the 2020 general election. Former Cllr Michael Gallagher was co-opted to fill the vacancy. *†††† Laytown-Bettystown Labour Cllr Annie Hoey was elected as a Senator in March 2020, on the

Agricultural Panel The Agricultural Panel () is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland). The Agricultural Panel elects eleven senators. Election Art ...

. Elaine McGinty was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 8 June 2020. *††††† Laytown-Bettystown Independent Cllr Sharon Keogan was elected as a Senator in April 2020, on the

Industrial and Commercial Panel The Industrial and Commercial Panel ( ga, An Rolla Tionscail Agus Tráchtála) is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland). The In ...

. Her sister, Geraldine Keogan, was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 8 June 2020.

Footnotes

References

Sources

* * * {{2019 Irish local elections Meath Meath County Council elections