Louth County Council

Louth County Council (Comhairle Contae Lú) is the local authority of County Louth, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning and development, amenity and culture, and environment. The council has 29 elected members. Elections are held every five years and are by single transferable vote. The head of the council has the title of Cathaoirleach (chairperson). The county administration is headed by a chief executive, Joan Martin. The county town is Dundalk.

History
Originally meetings of Louth County Council took place in Dundalk Courthouse. A home for the county officials was subsequently established at County Buildings in Crowe Street and both the county council and its officials moved to County Hall in 2000.

Regional Assembly
Louth County Council has three representatives on the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly who are part of the Eastern Strategic Planning Area Committee.

Elections
Members of Louth County Council are elected for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV) from multi-member local electoral areas (LEAs).

Local electoral areas and municipal districts
County Louth is divided into borough and municipal districts and LEAs, defined by electoral divisions. The municipal district which contains the administrative area of the former borough of Drogheda is referred to as a Borough District.

Councillors have regular monthly meetings both as a whole council and within their municipal district. Each municipal district elects its own chair, titled a Cathaoirleach.

Councillors
The following were elected at the 2024 Louth County Council election.

Councillors by electoral area
This list reflects the order in which councillors were elected on 7 June 2024.

Chief executive
Each council has a chief executive, previously known as city or county manager, who is the manager of the local authority.

Cathaoirleach of the council
Every year, each local authority elects a chair called the Cathaoirleach (Chairperson) for a term of one year and a deputy chair called the Leas-Cathaoirleach from among its members. The members elected for each municipal district elect a Cathaoirleach and a Leas-Chathaoirleach for their grouping. The Cathaoirleach chairs the meetings of the local authority or municipal district. Mayor and Deputy Mayor are titles used in municipal districts which were formerly borough councils.

Population by local electoral area
The table below sets out the population of the county broken down by Local Electoral Area, total 2022 population of 139,703.

The table below sets out the electorate population of the county broken down by Local Electoral Area.

Population by municipal district
The table below sets out the population of the county broken down by Municipal District, total 2022 population of 139,703.

Population by electoral division
The table below sets out the population of the county broken down by electoral division.