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THE NEW local election boundaries – which will shape the hopes of thousands of aspiring local councillors nationwide – have been published this evening.

The boundaries are contained in the report by the Local Electoral Area Boundary Boundary (PDF), published this evening.

The report marks the biggest single overhaul of Ireland’s local electoral boundaries since the foundation of the state, with town councils being merged into county councils, necessitating a radical redrawing of some boundaries.

The five-member committee was asked to redraw the internal boundaries of city and county councils, accommodating the merger of some city and county councils, the abolition of town councils, and using towns as the central focal points for new internal districts.

Under the new system, counties will have roughly one councillor for every 4,830 people, with one additional councillor for every town council being merged into the counties (subject to a maximum of four).

The 31 new city and county councils, in total, will have a total of 131 electoral areas which between them will elect 918 councillors – a significant reduction on the 1,647 currently in existence.

The reforms, engineered by environment minister Phil Hogan, will end the current system where Ireland has two ‘classes’ of councillor – members of city and county councils, and members of separate town councils, whose membership often overlaps with those of the larger authority.

The reforms will mean a reduction in the total number of councillors in most places – though individual city and county councils will grow in size to incorporate the numbers of town councillors being abolished.

The only council which is guaranteed to face no reform is Cork City Council, which was specifically exempted from the group’s terms of reference.

In Dublin, the city council will grow from 52 members to 63, as the internal boundaries are revised:

A high-resolution PDF of this map of Dublin is available here.