2014 Wicklow County Council election

An election to Wicklow County Council took place on 23 May 2014 as part of that year's Irish local elections. 32 councillors were elected from five electoral divisions (Arklow, Baltinglass, Bray, Greystones and Wicklow) by PR-STV voting for a five-year term of office, an increase of 8 seats from the previous election in 2009. In addition Arklow Town Council, Bray Town Council, Greystones Town Council and Wicklow Town Council were all abolished, as per the Local Government Reform Act 2014.

2014 Wicklow County Council election

23 May 2014
All 32 seats to Wicklow County Council 17 seats needed for a majority
Party Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Seats won 8 7 6 Seat change -1 +3 +4   Party Green Independent Labour Seats won 1 10 0 Seat change +1 +7 -6
Map showing the area of Wicklow County Council
Council control before election Fine Gael Labour Party Fianna Fáil Council control after election Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Independent

Independents proved to be the biggest winners in the elections, gaining 7 seats to return to the Council with 10 members. In addition Sinn Féin gained 4 additional seats on the Council, leaving them with 6 councillors in total. The additional seats helped to insulate Fine Gael from significant seat losses and they remained the largest party despite losing a seat overall. Fianna Fáil gained 3 seats overall to return with 7 members and though they had more first preference votes than Fine Gael, they won 1 less seat overall. Several of the successful Independents such as Joe Behan, Christopher Fox and Jim Ruttle all had former Fianna Fáil connections. The Labour Party polled disastrously in the election and were wiped out in what had been one of their former strongholds, losing all 6 seats. Outgoing councillor and outgoing Chairman, Jimmy O'Shaughnessy also lost his seat in the election. O'Shaughnessy was a former Labour member. However, 2 former Labour councillors, Tom Fortune and Tommy Cullen, were returned as Independents.

It was also notable that none of the mayors of the town councils were elected. Mick Glynn (FG; Bray), Malcolm Earls (FG; Wicklow) and Peter Dempsey (Ind; Arklow) all failed to be elected, while George Jones (FG; Greystones) retired after serving over 40 years as a Town Councillor and County Councillor.

Results by party

Party		Seats	±	First Pref. votes	FPv%	±%
	Fine Gael	8	-1	10,179	19.9%
	Fianna Fáil	7	+3	10,196	19.9%
	Sinn Féin	6	+4	8,493	16.7%
	Green	1	+1	1,217	2.4%
	Labour	0	-6	1,595	3.1%
	People Before Profit	0		1,054	2.05%
	Independent	10	+7	18,228	35.7%
Totals		32	+8	51,389	100%	—

Results by Electoral Area

[1][2]

Arklow

Arklow- 6 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Fianna Fáil	Pat Fitzgerald*	20.55	1,937
	Fianna Fáil	Pat Kennedy	16.46	1,552
	Fine Gael	Sylvester Bourke*	11.53	1,087	1,132	1,156	1,158	1,179	1,243	1,370
	Fianna Fáil	Tommy Annesley	9.16	864	1,130	1,181	1,186	1,232	1,298	1,380
	Sinn Féin	Mary McDonald††††††	7.91	746	776	787	811	853	872	972	976	1,088	1,092
	Independent	Tom Curran	7.0	660	690	703	731	766	807	892	902	1,075	1,082
	Independent	Jimmy O'Shaughnessy*	6.55	618	629	699	714	743	768
	Independent	Peter Dempsey	6.54	617	692	695	703	767	813	850	853
	Independent	Miriam Murphy	6.31	595	651	669	691	747	815	933	949	1,233	1,245
	Labour	Mary Mooty	3.42	322	350	355	359	376
	Independent	Nicky Kelly*	3.0	283	322	329	349
	Direct Democracy	Brian Whelan	1.03	97	102	104
	Independent	Charlie Keddy	0.53	50	55	56
Electorate: 16,752   Valid: 9,428 (56.28%)   Spoilt: 104   Quota: 1,347   Turnout: 9,532 (56.90%)

Baltinglass

Baltinglass - 6 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	Independent	Tommy Cullen*	16.90	1,802
	Sinn Féin	Gerry O'Neill†††††	14.45	1,541
	Independent	Jim Ruttle*	14.42	1,538
	Fine Gael	Edward Timmins*	11.95	1,274	1,374	1,381	1,402	1,405	1,411	1,434	1,513	1,850
	Fine Gael	Vincent Blake*	11.66	1,244	1,255	1,258	1,285	1,285	1,285	1,389	1,402	1,468
	Fianna Fáil	Pat Doran*	9.98	1,064	1,086	1,086	1,115	1,115	1,116	1,162	1,305	1,324
	Sinn Féin	Aidan Kinsella	6.09	650	685	689	716	723	724	792	823	840
	Fine Gael	Lorcan McMahon	5.45	581	596	603	611	615	618	627	723
	Fianna Fáil	Joe McCormac	3.81	406	439	446	456	458	460	473
	Independent	Kevin Byrne	2.51	268	287	312	380	381	382
	Independent	Jillian Godsil	1.81	193	214	250
	Independent	Dominic Plant	0.68	73	90
	Independent	Charlie Keddy	0.29	31	36
Electorate: 18,501   Valid: 10,665 (57.65%)   Spoilt: 123   Quota: 1,524   Turnout: 10,788 (58.31%)

Bray

Bray - 8 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
	Sinn Féin	John Brady*†††	16.95	2,142
	Independent	Joe Behan	12.11	1,516
	Independent	Christopher Fox*	11.85	1,484
	Independent	Brendan Thornhill	6.55	820	843	896	903	912	947	964	1,004	1,013	1,102	1,138	1,217	1,298	1,498
	Green	Steven Matthews	6.01	752	768	791	797	799	813	826	847	865	888	953	1,073	1,163	1,302	1,346	1,381
	Fianna Fáil	Pat Vance*	5.41	677	691	720	729	731	737	743	755	767	786	816	860	942	974	986	998
	Sinn Féin	Oliver O'Brien†††††	5.39	675	1,163	1,205	1,210	1,214	1,222	1,254	1,271	1,283	1,309	1,314	1,336	1,341	1,541
	Fianna Fáil	David Grant	5.12	641	665	722	728	729	732	744	760	771	799	814	853	921	970	976	989
	Fine Gael	John Ryan*	4.71	590	594	607	617	617	620	624	634	647	656	851	942	1,312	1,339	1,347	1,358
	People Before Profit	Sharon Briggs	4.47	560	638	667	673	676	703	750	770	783	817	834	881	907
	Fine Gael	Mick Glynn*	4.39	550	560	580	588	589	592	595	607	615	630	746	842
	Fine Gael	Sarah Wray	3.93	492	498	505	515	517	519	521	529	554	565
	Labour	Ronan McManus	3.58	448	461	481	487	490	497	500	513	623	639	677
	Labour	Tracy O'Brien	1.76	220	231	240	243	244	244	247	251
	Independent	Barry Nevin*	1.65	207	224	225	250	254	271	288	318	322
	Independent	Eugene Finnegan	1.34	168	185	211	217	221	232	246
	Independent	Catherine Hannon-Kennedy	1.16	145	162	179	182	189	198
	Independent	Seay Ledwidge	1.0	126	133	142	146	154
	Independent	Charlie Keddy	0.39	49	54	59	61
Electorate: 23,347   Valid: 12,522 (53.63%)   Spoilt: 148   Quota: 1,392   Turnout: 12,670 (54.27%)

Greystones

Greystones - 6 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	Independent	Jennifer Whitmore†	27.44	2,328
	Independent	Tom Fortune*	14.64	1,242
	Fine Gael	Derek Mitchell*	9.56	811	931	941	944	975	1,006	1,111	1,145	1,278
	Sinn Féin	Nicola Lawless	8.08	686	757	796	800	823	840	847	882	896	897	1,090
	Fianna Fáil	Gerry Walsh	7.45	632	732	747	749	755	806	827	1,043	1,068	1,074	1,110
	Fine Gael	Gráinne McLoughlin*	7.46	633	755	771	774	808	851	922	960	1,167	1,215
	People Before Profit	Jacqui Johnston	3.88	329	452	490	495	516	532	547	577	591	593
	Fianna Fáil	James Doyle	3.83	325	380	393	395	410	478	505
	Fine Gael	Liz Dillon	3.65	310	405	411	412	442	454	511	532
	Green	Niall Byrne	3.58	304	462	480	483	542	555	578	611	668	676	800
	Fine Gael	David O'Reilly	3.36	283	345	349	350	369	383
	Fianna Fáil	Taragh Hanley	2.82	239	295	302	304	306
	Labour	Ian McGahon	2.22	188	273	283	286
	Independent	Charlie Keddy	2.10	178	243
Electorate: 16,531   Valid: 8,485 (51.33%)   Spoilt: 81   Quota: 1,213   Turnout: 8,566 (51.82%)

Wicklow

Wicklow - 6 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
	Sinn Féin	John Snell*	15.33	1,577†††††
	Independent	Dáire Nolan	11.26	1,159	1,162	1,169	1,170	1,176	1,180	1,191	1,196	1,266	1,281	1,317	1,370	1,394	1,468	1,475
	Fianna Fáil	Pat Casey*††††	11.20	1,152	1,157	1,161	1,162	1,166	1,173	1,176	1,190	1,197	1,218	1,238	1,301	1,320	1,342	1,404
	Fine Gael	Shay Cullen	9.85	1,013	1,016	1,022	1,024	1,025	1,035	1,039	1,048	1,061	1,076	1,095	1,156	1,212	1,224	1,330
	Fine Gael	Irene Winters*	7.47	769	772	772	776	777	794	799	830	834	864	888	930	1,024	1,072	1,328
	Independent	Pat Kavanagh††	5.19	534	538	543	556	573	587	625	637	655	702	825	880	930	1,109	1,200
	Fianna Fáil	Gail Dunne	6.87	707	711	712	715	722	724	729	752	757	775	799	824	885	947	1,082
	Fine Gael	Malcolm Earls	5.27	542	547	550	555	560	569	572	595	598	623	647	685	789	827
	Sinn Féin	Garrett O'Reilly	4.63	476	519	522	531	542	549	573	580	615	635	666	708	761
	Labour	Paul O'Brien	4.05	417	424	426	428	432	453	460	471	479	498	543	580
	Independent	Jimmy O'Shaughnessy*	3.98	409	422	425	431	437	447	456	471	477	508	539
	Independent	John Goodman	3.72	383	386	387	390	397	404	417	426	435	457
	Independent	Gerry Kinsella	2.40	247	252	258	265	269	281	294	302	307
	Éirígí	Seán Doyle	1.79	184	186	189	191	195	196	217	219
	Independent	Mervyn Morrison	1.69	174	175	175	176	180	190	193
	People Before Profit	Anna Doyle	1.60	165	167	168	172	174	187
	Green	Paul Leahy	1.56	161	161	161	166	170
	Independent	Michael Mulvihill	0.86	88	91	93	94	94
	Direct Democracy	Norman Phillips	0.71	73	74	76
	Independent	Charlie Keddy	0.57	59	59
Electorate: 18,303   Valid: 10,289 (56.21%)   Spoilt: 91   Quota: 1,470   Turnout: 10,380 (56.71%)

Aftermath

Following the elections, the Fine Gael group with 8 councillors, the Fianna Fáil group with 7 councillors and an independent technical group of 4 councillors joined together to become the "official/government" side of the council, while the Sinn Féin group with 6 councillors, the Green Party councillor and an independent technical group of 5 councillors joined together to form the "opposition" side of the council. One independent councillor refused to join either side and remained on his own.

Following the election, at the first Annual General Meeting of the council, Christopher Fox (Independent) was elected Cathaoirleach (Chairman) of the Council. John Ryan (Fine Gael) was elected as Leas-Cathaoirleach (Vice-Chairman) of the Council.

The "control" of this council is now a rainbow coalition of Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Independent. The opposition side consists of Sinn Féin/Green Party/Independent.

References

1. "Wicklow County Council". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 2 June 2014.
2. "Wicklow County Council Local Election results". Wicklow.ie.

Post-Election Changes

• †Greystones Independent Cllr Jennifer Whitmore joined the Social Democrats on 14 November 2015.
• ††Wicklow Independent Cllr Pat Kavanagh died on 17 December 2015. Her sister, Mary, was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 7 March 2016.
• †††Bray Sinn Féin Cllr John Brady was elected as a TD for Wicklow at the Irish general election, 2016. Michael O'Connor was co-opted to fill the vacancy in March 2016.
• ††††Wicklow Fianna Fáil Cllr Pat Casey was elected as a TD for Wicklow at the Irish general election, 2016. Gail Dunne was co-opted to fill the vacancy in March 2016.
• †††††Following an internal row with Sinn Féin TD, John Brady, three Wicklow Cllrs Oliver O'Brien (Bray), Gerry O'Neill (Greystones) and John Snell (Wicklow) were stripped of the party whip and are now Independents. On 8 12 Oliver O'Brien joined Peadar Tóibín's new movement.
• †††††† Arklow Sinn Féin Cllr Mary McDonald resigned from the party and became an Independent on 10 March 2019 saying she was restricted in what she could do at Council level.

External links

• Wicklow County Council