Fingal County Council

Fingal County Council

*Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall*
Fingal County Council ; Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall
Type
Type	County council
Leadership
Mayor	Seána Ó Rodaigh, Lab
Structure
Seats	40
Political groups	Fianna Fáil (8); Fine Gael (7); Labour Party (6); Green Party (5); Sinn Féin (4); Social Democrats (2); I4C (1); PBP/Solidarity (1); Independent (6);
Elections
Last election	24 May 2019
Motto
	Flúirse Talaimh is Mara (Irish); "Abundance of Land and Sea"
Meeting place
	County Hall, Swords
Website
	fingalcoco.ie

Location of Fingal in Ireland

Fingal County Council (Irish: Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of Fingal, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that comprised the former Dublin County Council before its abolition on 1 January 1994 and is one of four councils in the Dublin Region. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transport, urban planning and development, amenity and culture, and environment. The council has 40 elected members. Elections are held every five years and are by single transferable vote. The head of the council has the title of Mayor. The county administration is headed by a Chief Executive, AnnMarie Farrelly. The county town is Swords.

History[]

Fingal County Council came into being on 1 January 1994.^[1]^[2]

The county council initially met at the former offices of the abolished Dublin County Council, an office block at 46-49 O'Connell Street, Dublin.^[3] A new building, known as County Hall, located on Main Street in Swords, was purpose-built for the county council and completed in 2000.^[4]

Administrative area[]

The county of Fingal covers an area of 456 km² and has 88 km of coastline stretching from Sutton in the south to Balbriggan in the north.^[5] It is drained by the Delvin River along its northern boundary, the Ballyboghil River and the Broadmeadow River and its major tributary, the Ward in the centre, and the Tolka and Santry rivers to the south. The River Liffey forms its southern border with South Dublin. There are three large protected estuaries and salt marsh habitats, with thirteen major beaches. Howth Head and the Liffey Valley are covered by Special Area Amenity Orders.

Local Electoral Areas[]

Fingal County Council has 40 seats, divided into the following seven local electoral areas, defined by electoral divisions.^[6]

LEA	Definition	Seats
Balbriggan	Balbriggan Rural, Balbriggan Urban, Holmpatrick and Skerries	5
Blanchardstown–Mulhuddart	Blanchardstown-Abbotstown, Blanchardstown-Corduff, Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Blanchardstown-Tyrrelstown, Dubber, The Ward;and those parts of the electoral divisions of Blanchardstown-Blakestown and Blanchardstown-Coolmine north of a line drawn along the N3 dual carriageway	5
Castleknock	Blanchardstown-Delwood, Blanchardstown-Roselawn, Castleknock-Knockmaroon, Castleknock-Park, Lucan North; the part of Blanchardstown-Blakestown electoral division situated within the following line: Commencing at the intersection of the boundary between the electoral divisions of Blanchardstown-Blakestown and Lucan North with the R121 Road at the Clonsilla railway station bridge; (referred to hereafter as the first-mentioned point); then proceeding in a north easterly direction along the R121 road to its intersection with the Clonsilla link road; then proceeding in a northerly direction along the Clonsilla link road to its intersection with the Ongar distributor road; then proceeding in a south-easterly direction along the Ongar distributor road to its intersection with Shelerin Road; then proceeding in a southerly direction along Shelerin Road to its intersection with Clonsilla Road; then proceeding in an easterly direction along Clonsilla Road to its intersection with Porterstown Road; then proceeding in a southerly direction along Porterstown Road to the railway line; then proceeding in a westerly direction along the railway line to the first-mentioned point;and that part of the electoral division of Blanchardstown-Coolmine not contained in the local electoral area of Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart	6
Howth–Malahide	Baldoyle, Howth, Malahide East, Malahide West, Portmarnock North, Portmarnock South, Sutton;and those parts of the electoral divisions of Balgriffin, Kinsaley and Swords-Seatown not contained in the local electoral area of Swords	7
Ongar	That part of the electoral division of Blanchardstown-Blakestown not contained in the local electoral area of Castleknock and not contained in the local electoral area of Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart	5
Rush–Lusk	Ballyboghil, Balscadden, Clonmethan, Donabate, Garristown, Hollywood, Lusk and Rush	5
Swords	Airport, Kilsallaghan, Swords-Forrest, Swords-Glasmore, Swords-Lissenhall, Swords Village, Turnapin; and those parts of the electoral divisions of Balgriffin, Kinsaley and Swords-Seatown west of a line drawn along the M1 motorway.	7

Councillors[]

2019 seats summary[]

Party		Seats
	Fianna Fáil	8
	Fine Gael	7
	Labour	6
	Green	5
	Sinn Féin	4
	Social Democrats	2
	Inds. 4 Change	1
	PBP/Solidarity	1
	Independent	6

Councillors by electoral area[]

This list reflects the order in which councillors were elected on 24 May 2019.^[7]

Council members from 2019 election
Local electoral area	Name	Party
Balbriggan	Tony Murphy		Independent
	Joe O'Brien^[a]		Green
	Seána Ó Rodaigh		Labour
	Tom O'Leary		Fine Gael
	Gráinne Maguire		Independent
Blanchardstown–Mulhuddart	Mary McCamley		Labour
	Breda Hanaphy		Sinn Féin
	Punam Rane		Fine Gael
	John Burtchaell^[b]		PBP/Solidarity
	Freddie Cooper^[a]		Fianna Fáil
Castleknock	Roderic O'Gorman^[a]		Green
	Emer Currie^[a]		Fine Gael
	Ted Leddy		Fine Gael
	John Walsh		Labour
	Howard Mahony		Fianna Fáil
	Natalie Tracey		Sinn Féin
Howth–Malahide	Eoghan O'Brien		Fianna Fáil
	David Healy		Green
	Cian O'Callaghan^[a]		Social Democrats
	Brian McDonagh		Labour
	Jimmy Guerin		Independent
	Aoibhinn Tormey		Fine Gael
	Anthony Lavin		Fine Gael
Ongar	Paul Donnelly^[a]		Sinn Féin
	Tania Doyle		Independent
	Tom Kitt		Fianna Fáil
	Kieran Dennison		Fine Gael
	Daniel Whooley		Green
Rush–Lusk	Robert O'Donoghue		Labour
	Adrian Henchy		Fianna Fáil
	Brian Dennehy		Fianna Fáil
	Cathal Boland		Independent
	Paul Mulville		Social Democrats
Swords	Darragh Butler		Fianna Fáil
	Dean Mulligan		Inds. 4 Change
	Ian Carey		Green
	Duncan Smith^[a]		Labour
	Joe Newman		Independent
	Brigid Manton		Fianna Fáil
	Ann Graves		Sinn Féin

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Replaced during term, see table below for details.
^ Solidarity–People Before Profit was renamed as People Before Profit/Solidarity in June 2021.

Co-options[]

	Outgoing	Electoral area	Reason	Date	Co-optee
Green	Joe O'Brien	Balbriggan	Elected as a TD for Dublin Fingal at the 2019 by-election	November 2019	Karen Power
Green	Roderic O'Gorman	Castleknock	Elected as a TD for Dublin West at the 2020 general election	February 2020	Pamela Conroy
Social Democrats	Cian O'Callaghan	Howth–Malahide	Elected as a TD for Dublin Bay North at the 2020 general election	February 2020	Joan Hopkins
Sinn Féin	Paul Donnelly	Ongar	Elected as a TD for Dublin West at the 2020 general election	February 2020	Aaron O'Rourke
Labour	Duncan Smith	Swords	Elected as a TD for Dublin Fingal at the 2020 general election	February 2020	James Humphreys
Fine Gael	Emer Currie	Castleknock	Nominated by the Taoiseach to Seanad Éireann	June 2020	Siobhan Shovlin
Fianna Fáil	Freddie Cooper	Blanchardstown–Mulhuddart	Death	June 2021	JK Onwumereh

Governance[]

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are chosen from among the Councillors.^[8] The Chief Executive – AnnMarie Farrelly – is appointed by central government^[9]

References[]

^ "Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993, § 9: Establishment and boundaries of administrative counties". Irish Statute Book. 21 December 1993. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
^ "Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 Commencement Order 1993". Irish Statute Book. 22 December 1993. Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
^ "Fingal council to build new county offices in Swords". Irish Times. 4 September 1996. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
^ "Fingal's offices are greenest of all". Irish Times. 9 November 2000. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
^ "Fingal Climate Change Adaptation Plan" (PDF). Fingal County Council. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
^ "County of Fingal Local Electoral Areas Order 2018". 19 December 2018. Archived from the original on 23 November 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
^ "Local Elections 2019: Results, Transfer of Votes and Statistics" (PDF). Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. pp. 104–111. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
^ Per Schedule 8 of the Local Government Act, 2001, the Council resolved to give to the office of its chairperson and vice-chairperson the title of "Mayor" or "Deputy Mayor", respectively.
^ "Staff Directory". Fingal County Council. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.

External links[]

Official website

[coopt-8] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Replaced during term, see table below for details.

[PBPSOL-9] Solidarity–People Before Profit was renamed as People Before Profit/Solidarity in June 2021.

[1] "Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993, § 9: Establishment and boundaries of administrative counties". Irish Statute Book. 21 December 1993. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2020.

[2] "Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 Commencement Order 1993". Irish Statute Book. 22 December 1993. Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.

[3] "Fingal council to build new county offices in Swords". Irish Times. 4 September 1996. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.

[times-4] "Fingal's offices are greenest of all". Irish Times. 9 November 2000. Retrieved 1 November 2019.

[5] "Fingal Climate Change Adaptation Plan" (PDF). Fingal County Council. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.

[6] "County of Fingal Local Electoral Areas Order 2018". 19 December 2018. Archived from the original on 23 November 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.

[7] "Local Elections 2019: Results, Transfer of Votes and Statistics" (PDF). Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. pp. 104–111. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.

[10] Per Schedule 8 of the Local Government Act, 2001, the Council resolved to give to the office of its chairperson and vice-chairperson the title of "Mayor" or "Deputy Mayor", respectively.

[11] "Staff Directory". Fingal County Council. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[a]

[b]

[8]

[9]

v t Local government in the Republic of Ireland
County councils	Carlow Cavan Clare Cork Donegal Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Fingal Galway Kerry Kildare Kilkenny Laois Leitrim Longford Louth Mayo Meath Monaghan Offaly Roscommon Sligo South Dublin Tipperary Westmeath Wexford Wicklow
City councils	Cork Dublin Galway
City and County councils	Limerick Waterford
Regional Assemblies	Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly Northern and Western Regional Assembly Southern Regional Assembly
Disestablished	Corporation of Dún Laoghaire Dublin County Council Limerick City Council Limerick County Council Pembroke Township North Tipperary County Council South Tipperary County Council Waterford City Council Waterford County Council Town councils Town commissioners
Acts	Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 Local Government Act 1925 Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 Local Government Act 2001 Local Government Reform Act 2014 Local Government Act 2019
See also	Chief executive Local electoral areas