2014 Carlow County Council election

An election to all 18 seats on Carlow County Council was held on 23 May 2014 as part of the 2014 Irish local elections. County Carlow was divided into two 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).

Administrative changes
Carlow County Council had been allocated 21 seats under the Local Government Act 2001. In November 2012, Phil Hogan, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, appointed a Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee to review the allocation of seats and the local electoral areas across local authorities. In the case of Carlow County Council, it recommended an decrease to 18 seats. In addition, the town councils of Carlow and Muinebheag were abolished. This was implemented by the Local Government Reform Act 2014. County Carlow was redrawn into two electoral areas, a reduction from five.

Analysis
While Fine Gael remained the largest party after the election, in terms of seats though not in terms of vote share, they lost two-fifths of their councillors. Their colleagues in government, the Labour Party, lost three-fifths of their councillors being reduced to just 2 seats. Fianna Fáil gained a seat to return 5 members and reported a higher vote than Fine Gael but the big winners were Sinn Féin who won 3 seats to supplant Labour as the traditional third-largest party.

Local electoral areas
Carlow County Council was divided into the two local electoral areas (LEAs), defined by electoral divisions.