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. This allowed for the enactment of reforms under the Local Government (Reorganisation) Act 1985. 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: 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:; 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.
Results County, city and town council seats Party Seats ± The first two digits of the Fine Gael total vote seem to be transposed in error, based on the other figures and percentages. ±% 441 113648,07045.6+6.5 287 5422,04529.7-5.4 60 15109,6817.9-4.2 201343,0063.0+0.8 10 146,3913.3+1.7 6 2 11,073 0.80.0 3 35,4720.4New 1 11,6810.1New 1 01,5060.10.0 0 07,4460.5New 0 05930.0New 135,6039.6-2.1 Total1,421,494100.0— Note Sinn Féin, Independent Fianna Fáil and the Waterford People's Party were not registered political parties.
Counties and cities AuthorityFFFGLabWPSFInd/OthTotalCarlow1073121Cavan1410125Clare178732Cork City13852331Cork County241921248Donegal1191829Dublin City2613261452Dublin–Belgard13822126Dublin–Fingal1373124Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown13113128Galway City6511215Galway County179430Kerry1373427Kildare1075325Kilkenny11103226Laois1491125Leitrim108422Limerick City561517Limerick County181028Longford109221Louth12821326Mayo1514231Meath1710229Monaghan1071220North Tipperary1261221Offaly126321Roscommon138526Sligo1191425South Tipperary1483126Waterford City5422215Waterford County1110223Westmeath1353223Wexford1161321Wicklow13541124Totals4372835820481783
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See also Local government in the Republic of Ireland :Category:Irish local government councils