2019 Waterford City and County Council election

An election to all 32 seats on Waterford City and County Council was held on 24 May 2019 as part of the 2019 Irish local elections. The City and County of Waterford was divided into 6 local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

2019 Waterford City and County Council election

← 2014 24 May 2019 2024 →
All 32 seats on Waterford City and County Council 17 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Seats won 7 7 6 Seat change 1 1   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Labour Green Independent Seats won 4 2 6 Seat change 3 2 3
Results by local electoral area
Council control after election Sinn Féin, Independent (5), Labour and Green Party

Voters in Waterford also took part in a plebiscite on whether or not to establish the position of a directly elected mayor for the council under the Local Government Act 2019.^[1][2] The proposal was rejected by a narrow margin of 50.8% No to 49.2% Yes.^[3] Two other council also held plebiscites on directly elected mayors: Cork City rejected the proposal, and Limerick was the only one of the three to vote Yes.^[3]

Boundary review

Following the recommendations of the 2018 boundary review committee, there were significant changes to the LEAs in the 2014 election due to terms of references requiring a maximum of seven councillors in each LEA and changes in population revealed in the 2016 census.^[4][5]

Results by party

Party		Seats	±	1st pref	FPv%	±%
	Fine Gael	7	1	11,043	25.01	0.09
	Fianna Fáil	7	1	8,248	18.68	0.82
	Sinn Féin	6		6,216	14.08	1.92
	Labour	4	3	3,662	8.29	0.29
	Green	2	2	2,659	6.02	6.02
	People Before Profit	0		332	0.75	0.35
	Renua	0		253	0.57	New
	Aontú	0		246	0.56	New
	Independent	6	3	11,501	26.04	1.26
Total		32		44,160	100.00

Results by local electoral area

^ *: Outgoing councillor elected in 2014.
^ †: Outgoing councillor coopted subsequent to the 2014 election.

Dungarvan

Dungarvan: 6 seats^[6][7][8]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Fine Gael	Damien Geoghegan[*]	20.03%	1,716
	Fianna Fáil	Tom Cronin[*]	14.08%	1,206	1,234
	Fine Gael	Pat Nugent[*]	11.65%	998	1,081	1,094	1,121	1,171	1,211	1,313
	Sinn Féin	Conor D. McGuinness	9.01%	772	818	842	1,007	1,054	1,137	1,216	1,221
	Independent	Seamus O'Donnell[*]	8.32%	713	737	746	771	861	965	1,079	1,096
	Labour	Thomas Phelan	7.87%	674	724	741	758	795	913	1,026	1,038
	Fine Gael	Ian Noctor	6.69%	573	669	688	707	751	819	953	980
	Independent	Joe O'Riordan	5.80%	497	529	552	578	653
	Fianna Fáil	Ann Marie Rossiter	5.73%	491	560	587	628	686	774
	Independent	Caren Hallahan	4.40%	377	403	449	471
	Sinn Féin	Siobhán Whelan[*]	4.12%	353	379	391
	Independent	Ciara Langan	1.32%	113	117
	Fianna Fáil	Sean French	0.99%	85	92
Electorate: 16,197   Valid: 8,568   Spoilt: 135   Quota: 1,225   Turnout: 8,703 (53.73%)

Lismore

Lismore: 3 seats^[9][7][10]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Labour	John Pratt[*]	31.55%	1,385
	Fianna Fáil	James Tobin[*]	27.52%	1,208
	Fine Gael	Declan Doocey[*]	23.71%	1,041	1,205
	Sinn Féin	Louise Brierley	9.68%	425	491
	Green	Lynne Glasscoe	7.54%	331	388
Electorate: 9,226   Valid: 4,390   Spoilt: 86   Quota: 1,098   Turnout: 4,476 (48.52%)

Portlaw–Kilmacthomas

Portlaw–Kilmacthomas: 5 seats^[11][7][12]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Fine Gael	Seanie Power	21.17%	1,591	1,253
	Fine Gael	Liam Brazil[*]	19.72%	1,482	1,482	1,253
	Fianna Fáil	John O'Leary[*]	14.94%	1,123	1,163	1,204	1,273	1,253
	Labour	Ger Barron	13.05%	981	1,018	1,098	1,249	1,256
	Sinn Féin	Declan Clune[*]	9.84%	740	762	771	860	861	1,028
	Fianna Fáil	Ray Murphy[†]	8.19%	616	708	721	770	778	963
	Fine Gael	Mairead Coffey Jacob	5.92%	445	550	612	686	690
	Independent	Dolores Whelan	3.72%	280	305	319
	Independent	Ann Troy	3.45%	259	276	286
Electorate: 14,318   Valid: 7,517   Spoilt: 152   Quota: 1,253   Turnout: 7,669 (53.6%)

Tramore–Waterford City West

Tramore–Waterford City West: 6 seats^[13][7][14]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Green	Marc Ó Cathasaigh[a]	14.28%	1,122	1,126	1,123
	Independent	Joe Conway[*]	13.75%	1,080	1,083	1,083	1,097	1,126
	Fine Gael	Lola O'Sullivan[*]	13.07%	1,027	1,031	1,031	1,052	1,062	1,183	1,183	1,123
	Independent	Joe Kelly[*]	12.09%	950	963	964	976	1,002	1,014	1,062	1,069	1,102	1,143
	Fianna Fáil	Eamon Quinlan[*]	9.70%	762	769	770	836	844	868	920	946	969	1,002
	Independent	Blaise Hannigan[*]	8.74%	687	690	690	701	714	742	794	807	886	912
	Sinn Féin	Jim Griffin[*]	7.39%	581	589	589	596	614	620	626	629	691	979
	Sinn Féin	Leslie Hughes	5.03%	395	399	399	405	425	430	437	439	523
	People Before Profit	Úna Dunphy	4.23%	332	333	333	341	349	368	385	394
	Renua	Michael Gallwey	3.22%	253	257	257	260	263	273
	Fine Gael	Maxine Keoghan	3.16%	248	250	251	254	257
	Fianna Fáil	Rita Lacey	2.16%	170	173	173
	Independent	Brendan Byrne	2.15%	169	176	176	182
	Independent	Melissa O'Neill	1.03%	81
Electorate: 16,215   Valid: 7,857   Spoilt: 173   Quota: 1,123   Turnout: 8,030 (49.5%)

Waterford City East

Waterford City East: 6 seats^[15][7][16]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Independent	Matt Shanahan[†][a]	20.32%	1,736
	Independent	David Daniels[*]	14.06%	1,201	1,307
	Fianna Fáil	Eddie Mulligan[*]	10.91%	932	1,010	1,071	1,083	1,153	1,195	1,267
	Fianna Fáil	Adam Wyse[*]	10.44%	892	966	1,032	1,052	1,122	1,202	1,308
	Green	Jody Power	8.95%	765	833	908	928	975	1,038	1,141
	Sinn Féin	Pat Fitzgerald[*]	6.87%	587	602	611	615	664	936	1,086
	Fine Gael	Sharon Carey[†]	6.77%	578	612	639	653	831	871	950
	Sinn Féin	Michael Doyle	6.27%	536	558	576	579	590
	Independent	Lee Walsh	6.12%	523	563	607	615	661	700
	Fine Gael	Fiona Dowd	5.64%	482	515	531	536
	Independent	Michael Garland	3.64%	311	356
Electorate: 15,562   Valid: 8,543   Spoilt: 122   Quota: 1,221   Turnout: 8,665 (55.7%)

Waterford City South

Waterford City South: 6 seats^[17][7][18]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Sinn Féin	John Hearne[*]	14.70%	1,071	1,071	1,041
	Fine Gael	John Cummins[*][a]	11.83%	862	876	877	899	915	929	959	1,025	1,067
	Fianna Fáil	Jason Murphy[*]	10.47%	763	772	774	840	850	870	919	960	1,015	1,028
	Independent	Donal Barry	9.94%	724	751	753	782	840	868	946	1,008	1,163	1,041
	Labour	Séamus Ryan	8.54%	622	627	629	640	653	672	729	812	879	893
	Independent	Laurence (Cha) O'Neill[*]	6.97%	508	515	517	543	554	584	637	665	756	788
	Independent	Andrew Power	6.12%	446	470	471	488	518	535	586	627
	Sinn Féin	Breda Brennan[*]	6.09%	444	456	464	471	502	649	702	774	835	863
	Green	Susan Gallagher	6.05%	441	451	452	473	504	513	534
	Independent	Seán Reinhardt[*]	5.59%	407	418	421	432	446	483
	Sinn Féin	Warren Fitzgerald	4.28%	312	331	339	347	370
	Independent	Vivienne Burns	3.68%	268	280	281	290
	Aontú	Ronan Cleary	3.38%	246	254	254
	Independent	Brendan Byrne	2.35%	171
Electorate: 14,323   Valid: 7,285   Spoilt: 156   Quota: 1,041   Turnout: 7,441 (51.95%)

Footnotes

1. See change below.

Results by gender

2019 Waterford City and County Council election[19][20] Candidates by gender
Gender	Number of candidates	% of candidates	Elected councillors	% of councillors
Men	46	69.7%	30	93.8%
Women	20	30.3%	2	6.3%
TOTAL	66		32

Plebiscite

2019 Waterford City and County Council Directly Elected Mayor plebiscite^[21][3]

Choice	Votes	%
No	22,437	50.8
Yes	21,718	49.2
Total votes	44,155	100.00

Changes after the 2019 election

Co-options

Party		Outgoing	LEA	Reason	Date	Co-optee
	Green	Marc Ó Cathasaigh	Tramore–Waterford City West	Elected to the 33rd Dáil at the 2020 general election[22][23]	25 February 2020	Laura Swift[24][25][26][27]
	Independent	Matt Shanahan	Waterford City East	Elected to the 33rd Dáil at the 2020 general election[22][23]	25 February 2020	Mary Roche[25][28]
	Green	Laura Swift	Tramore–Waterford City West	Resignation on 6 May 2020 due to conflict with family mediation service[29]	24 June 2020	Susan Gallagher[30][31][32][33]
	Fine Gael	John Cummins	Waterford City South	Elected to the 26th Seanad on the Labour Panel at the 2020 Seanad election[34]	24 June 2020	Frank Quinlan[35][32][36]
	Fianna Fáil	James Tobin	Lismore	Death of councillor	July 2022	Mairéad Tobin
	Fianna Fáil	Eddie Mulligan	Waterford City East	Resignation	August 2022	Stephanie Keating

Changes in affiliation

Name	LEA	Elected as		New affiliation		Date
Declan Clune	Portlaw–Kilmacthomas		Sinn Féin		Independent	1 September 2020[37]
Mary Roche	Waterford City East		Independent		Social Democrats	November 2022