County Donegal - Government and Politics

Government and Politics

Donegal County Council (which has officially been in existence since 1899) has responsibility for local administration, and is headquartered at the County House in Lifford. The County Council runs alongside Town Councils in Letterkenny, Bundoran, Ballyshannon and Buncrana. Both the County Council and Town Councils have elections every five years (alongside local elections nationally, and elections to the European Parliament), the last of which took place on 5 June 2009. Twenty nine councillors are elected using the system of Proportional representation-Singe Transferable Vote (STV), across five electoral areas (Inishowen – 7 seats, Letterkenny – 7 seats, Donegal – 5 seats, Stranorlar – 5 seats, and Glenties – 5 seats.

For General elections, the county is divided into two constituencies, Donegal South–West and Donegal North–East, with both having three representatives in Dáil Éireann. For elections to the European Parliament, the county is part of the North–West constituency (formerly Connacht–Ulster).