The Electoral Act 2009 (No. 4/2009) is a law of the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 which provided for parliamentary constituencies for the 31st Dáil Éireann

Dáil Éireann

Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...

. The 31st Dáil was elected at the 2011 general election in March 2011.

This Act replaced the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005

Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005

The Electoral Act 2005 is a law of the Republic of Ireland which provided for parliamentary constituencies for the 30th Dáil Éireann. The 30th Dáil was elected at the 2007 general election on 24 May 2007....

 (No. 16/2005), which defined the constituencies used for the 30th Dáil (elected in 2007). The 2007 report of the Constituency Commission

Constituency Commission

The Constituency Commission is an independent statutory body in Ireland, whose remit is to make a report in relation to the constituencies for the election of members to Dáil Éireann and of members to the European Parliament from Ireland...

, an independent body established by the Government of Ireland to review constituency boundaries, proposed several changes to Dáil constituencies. These changes were provided for by the Act.

Summary of changes

This table below, summarises the changes in representation. It does not address revisions to the boundaries of constituencies.

Constituency	Created	Seats	Change
Dublin West	1981	4	gains 1 seat
Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dún Laoghaire is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1977	4	loses 1 seat
Kerry North	1937	3	abolished
Kerry North–West Limerick	2011	3	new constituency
Limerick Limerick (Dáil Éireann constituency) Limerick is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	2011	3	new constituency
Limerick City Limerick City (Dáil Éireann constituency) Limerick City is a parliamentary constituency in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	2011	4	new constituency
Limerick East	1948	5	abolished
Limerick West	1948	3	abolished
Louth Louth (Dáil Éireann constituency) Louth is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1923	5	gains 1 seat

There were further boundary changes to 18 constituencies, these were:
Cork East

Cork East (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Cork East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...

, Cork North Central

Cork North Central (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Cork North–Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...

, Cork North West

Cork North West (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Cork North–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...

, Donegal North East

Donegal North East (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Donegal North–East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...

, Donegal South West

Donegal South West (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Donegal South–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...

, Dublin North, Dublin North Central

Dublin North Central (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Dublin North–Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...

, Dublin North East

Dublin North East (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Dublin North–East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...

, Dublin South

Dublin South (Dáil Éireann constituency)

Dublin South is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...

, Kerry South, Kildare North, Kildare South, Laois–Offaly, Meath East, Meath West, Roscommon–South Leitrim, Sligo–North Leitrim and Tipperary North.

List of constituencies for the 31st Dáil

Explanation of columns

• Number: The number of the constituency (in alphabetical order).
• Constituency: The name of the constituency. Compass points follow the area name in this list, which is not always the case in the official version of the name.
• Created: The year of the election when a constituency of the same name was last created.
• No.: The number of times a constituency with the same name has been created (if more than one then there was a gap before the current version of the constituency was created).
• Seats: The number of TDs elected from the constituency under the Act.
• Change: Change in the number of seats since the last distribution of seats (which took effect in 2007).

Number	Constituency	Created	No.	Seats	Change
01	Carlow–Kilkenny Carlow–Kilkenny (Dáil Éireann constituency) Carlow–Kilkenny is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1948	(2)	5	none
02	Cavan–Monaghan Cavan–Monaghan (Dáil Éireann constituency) Cavan–Monaghan is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1977	(1)	5	none
03	Clare	1921	(1)	4	none
04	Cork East Cork East (Dáil Éireann constituency) Cork East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1981	(4)	4	none
05	Cork North Central Cork North Central (Dáil Éireann constituency) Cork North–Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1981	(1)	4	none
06	Cork North West Cork North West (Dáil Éireann constituency) Cork North–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	1981	(1)	3	none
07	Cork South Central Cork South Central (Dáil Éireann constituency) Cork South–Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1981	(1)	5	none
08	Cork South West Cork South West (Dáil Éireann constituency) Cork South–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies . The method of election is the single transferable vote form of proportional representation .- History and boundaries :It was...	1961	(1)	3	none
09	Donegal North East Donegal North East (Dáil Éireann constituency) Donegal North–East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	1981	(2)	3	none
10	Donegal South West Donegal South West (Dáil Éireann constituency) Donegal South–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	1981	(2)	3	none
11	Dublin Central Dublin Central (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1981	(2)	4	none
12	Dublin Mid West Dublin Mid West (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin Mid–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	2002	(2)	4	none
13	Dublin North	1981	(2)	4	none
14	Dublin North Central Dublin North Central (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin North–Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	1948	(1)	3	none
15	Dublin North East Dublin North East (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin North–East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	1981	(2)	3	none
16	Dublin North West Dublin North West (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin North–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	1981	(3)	3	none
17	Dublin South Dublin South (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin South is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1981	(2)	5	none
18	Dublin South Central Dublin South Central (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin South–Central is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1948	(1)	5	none
19	Dublin South East Dublin South East (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin South–East is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1948	(1)	4	none
20	Dublin South West Dublin South West (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dublin South–West is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1981	(2)	4	none
21	Dublin West	1981	(1)	4	plus 1
22	Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire (Dáil Éireann constituency) Dún Laoghaire is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1977	(1)	4	minus 1
23	Galway East	1977	(4)	4	none
24	Galway West	1937	(1)	5	none
25	Kerry North–West Limerick	2011	(1)	3	plus 3
26	Kerry South	1937	(2)	3	none
27	Kildare North	1997	(2)	4	none
28	Kildare South	1997	(2)	3	none
29	Laois–Offaly	2007	(1)	5	none
30	Limerick Limerick (Dáil Éireann constituency) Limerick is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	2011	(2)	3	plus 3
31	Limerick City Limerick City (Dáil Éireann constituency) Limerick City is a parliamentary constituency in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	2011	(2)	4	plus 4
32	Longford–Westmeath	2007	(3)	4	none
33	Louth Louth (Dáil Éireann constituency) Louth is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1923	(2)	5	plus 1
34	Mayo Mayo (Dáil Éireann constituency) Mayo is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects five deputies...	1997	(1)	5	none
35	Meath East	2007	(1)	3	none
36	Meath West	2007	(1)	3	none
37	Roscommon–South Leitrim	2007	(1)	3	none
38	Sligo–North Leitrim	2007	(1)	3	none
39	Tipperary North	1948	(2)	3	none
40	Tipperary South Tipperary South (Dáil Éireann constituency) Tipperary South is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 3 deputies...	1948	(2)	3	none
41	Waterford Waterford (Dáil Éireann constituency) Waterford is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 4 deputies...	1923	(1)	4	none
42	Wexford Wexford (Dáil Éireann constituency) Wexford is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1921	(1)	5	none
43	Wicklow Wicklow (Dáil Éireann constituency) Wicklow is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects 5 deputies...	1923	(1)	5	none

Constituencies abolished

Constituency	Created	No.	Seats	Change
Kerry North	1937	(1)	3	minus 3
Limerick East	1948	(1)	5	minus 5
Limerick West	1948	(1)	3	minus 3

See also

• List of historic Dáil Éireann constituencies
• Parliamentary constituencies in the Republic of Ireland
  Parliamentary constituencies in the Republic of Ireland
  The lower house of the Oireachtas , Dáil Éireann, contains 166 Teachtaí Dála , representing 43 parliamentary constituencies throughout the Republic of Ireland. Depending on its size, each constituency must have at least 3 members and a maximum of five members. The most recent ratio indicates that...
  
  
• Irish general election timetable
  Irish general election timetable
  This a list of general election timetables for Dáil Éireann from 1918–2011.-Sources:*Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922, edited by B.M. Walker *The Times , various editions...
  
  

External links

• Acts of the Oireachtas