1985 Irish local elections

← 1979 20 June 1985 1991 →

First party Second party Third party   Leader Charles Haughey Garret FitzGerald Dick Spring Party Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Labour Leader since 7 December 1979 1 July 1977 1 November 1982 Seats won 441 287 60 Seat change 113 5 15 Popular vote 648,070 422,045 109,681 Percentage 45.6 29.7 4.2% Swing 6.5 5.4%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   IFF Leader Tomás Mac Giolla Gerry Adams Neil Blaney Party Workers' Party Sinn Féin Independent Fianna Fáil Leader since 14 October 1962 13 November 1983 1972 Last election N/A Seats won 20 10 6 Seat change 13 10 2 Popular vote 43,006 46,391 11073 Percentage 3.0% 3.3% 0.8 Swing 0.3% 1.7% 0.8%   Seventh party   DSP Leader Jim Kemmy Party Democratic Socialist Party Leader since 1972 Seats won 3 Seat change 3 Popular vote 5,472 Percentage 0.4 Swing 0.4% (New)

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.^[1] 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:^[2]

• 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:^[3]

• 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.^[4]

Results

County, city and town council seats

Party		Seats	±	1st pref	FPv%[5][6]	±%
	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	0	46,391	3.3
	Independent Fianna Fáil	6	2	11,073	0.8
	Democratic Socialist	3	New	5,472	0.4	New
	Waterford People's Party	1	New	1,681	0.1	New
	Donegal Progressive Party	1		1,506	0.1
	Green	0	New	7,446	0.5	New
	Communist	0		593	0.0
	Independent			135,603	9.6	-2.1
Total				1,421,494	100	—

Note

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

Counties and cities