The 2014 local elections in the Republic of Ireland

The 2014 local elections were framed by legislation which dramatically altered the local government landscape and reduced the number of local authorities in the country from 114 to 31 with the abolition of the town council level. Though the elections received good levels of media coverage, turnout was disappointing and was the second lowest level recorded at Irish local elections in the history of the State. The elections were contested on a mixture of local and national issues and the austerity policies of the government were heavily criticised throughout the campaign. Unsurprisingly, the government parties suffered. Fine Gael lost over 100 council seats, but the Labour Party bore the brunt of the electorate's anger and only won 5 per cent of the seats. Fianna Faíl re-emerged as the biggest party at local government level, but its success was dwarfed by significant increases in support for Sinn Feín and the Non-Party/Independent grouping. Younger candidates and women also fared well at the 2014 local elections. In the aftermath of the elections, some interesting alliances were entered into, to control local authorities across the country. There is a concern that not all of these alliances will prove stable when difficult financial decisions have to be made and annual budgets have to be agreed.