Editing Counties of Ireland (section)

===In the Republic of Ireland===
{{main|Local government in the Republic of Ireland}}
{{Politics of the Republic of Ireland}}
In the Republic of Ireland, the traditional counties are, in general, the basis for local government, planning and community development purposes and are still generally respected for other purposes. They are governed by [[county council]]s. Administrative borders have been altered to allocate various towns exclusively into one county having been originally split between two counties.

At the establishment of the [[Irish Free State]] in 1922, there were 27 administrative counties (with [[County Tipperary]] divided into the administrative counties of [[North Tipperary]] and [[South Tipperary]]) and 4 county boroughs, [[Dublin]], [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Limerick]] and [[Waterford]].

[[Rural district]]s were abolished by the [[Local Government Act 1925]] and the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1930 amidst widespread allegations of corruption.

Under the Local Government Provisional Order Confirmation Act 1976, part of the urban area of [[Drogheda]], which lay in County Meath, was transferred to County Louth on 1 January 1977. This resulted in the land area of County Louth increasing slightly at the expense of County Meath.<ref>{{cite web | last = Tully | first = James | title = Local Government Provisional Order Confirmation Act, 1976 | publisher = [[Attorney General of Ireland|Office of the Irish Attorney General]] | date = 19 October 1976 | url = http://www.irishstatutebook.ie:80/1976/en/act/prv/0001/print.html | access-date = 22 March 2008 | archive-date = 22 January 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090122025027/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1976/en/act/prv/0001/print.html | url-status = live }}</ref> The possibility of a similar action with regard to [[Waterford City]] has been raised in recent years, though opposition from Kilkenny has been strong.

In 1985, [[Galway]] became a county borough.

[[County Dublin]] was abolished as an administrative county in 1994 and divided into three administrative counties: [[Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown]], [[Fingal]], and [[South Dublin]].

Under the [[Local Government Act 2001]], the county boroughs of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford were re-styled as cities, with the same status in law as counties. The term [[administrative county]] was replaced with the term "county".

The cities of [[Limerick]] and [[Waterford]] were merged with their respective counties by the [[Local Government Reform Act 2014]], to form new ''cities and counties''. The same Act also abolished North Tipperary and South Tipperary and re-established County Tipperary as an administrative unit.

There are now 31 local government areas: 26 counties, three cities, and two cities and counties.

Since 2014, local authorities send representatives to [[Regional Assemblies in Ireland|Regional Assemblies]] overseeing three regions for the purposes of [[European Structural and Investment Funds]]: Southern Region, the Eastern and Midland Region, and the Northern and Western Region.<ref name="Regions_EMRA">{{cite web |title=What we do |url=https://emra.ie/what-we-do/ |website=The Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly |access-date=26 October 2021}}</ref> From 1994 to 2014, there were eight [[Regional Authorities in Ireland|Regional Authorities]], dissolved under the Local Government Reform Act 2014.

As placenames, there is a distinction between the traditional counties, listed as "counties", and those created as local government areas, listed as "administrative counties".<ref name=si519 />

====Education====
In 2013 [[Education and Training Board]]s (ETBs) were formed throughout the Republic of Ireland, replacing the system of [[Vocational Education Committee]]s (VECs) created in 1930. Originally, VECs were formed for each administrative county and county borough, and also in a number of larger towns, and were legally sub-committees of the relevant authorities. In 1997 the majority of town VECs were absorbed by the surrounding county authorities. The 33 VEC areas were reduced to 16 ETB areas, with each consisting of one or more local government county or city areas.<ref name=roinn>{{cite web|title=01 July, 2013– Education and Training Boards replace VECs|url=http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2013-Press-Releases/PR-%202013-%2007-%2001.html|publisher=[[Department of Education (Ireland)|Department of Education and Skills]]|access-date=3 July 2013|archive-date=13 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013133013/http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2013-Press-Releases/PR-%202013-%2007-%2001.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Institutes of technology in Ireland|Institute of technology]] system was organised by committee areas or "functional areas"; these areas retain their legal basis but are not as important as originally envisioned as the institutes are now more national in character. The functional areas are only of significance today when selecting governing councils; similarly, [[Dublin Institute of Technology]] was originally a group of several colleges within the aegis of the [[City of Dublin]] VEC.

====Elections====
Where possible, [[Dáil constituencies]] follow county boundaries. Under the Electoral Act 1997, as amended, a [[Constituency Commission]] is established following the publication of preliminary census figures every five years. The commission is charged with defining constituency boundaries, and the 1997 Act provides that "the breaching of county boundaries shall be avoided as far as practicable".<ref>{{cite Irish legislation|year=2009|number=4|section=9|stitle=Substitution of Part II of Electoral Act 1997|name=[[Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009]]|date=24 February 2009|access-date=10 January 2022}}</ref> This provision does not apply to the boundaries between cities and counties, or between the three counties in the Dublin area.

This system usually results in more populated counties having several constituencies: Dublin, including Dublin city, is subdivided into twelve constituencies, Cork into five. On the other hand, smaller counties such as Carlow and Kilkenny or Laois and Offaly may be paired to form constituencies. Leitrim, Ireland's least populated county, was divided between the constituencies of [[Sligo–North Leitrim (Dáil constituency)|Sligo–North Leitrim]] and [[Roscommon–South Leitrim (Dáil constituency)|Roscommon–South Leitrim]] from 2007 to 2016.

Each county, city, and city and county is divided into [[local electoral area]]s for the election of councillors. The boundaries of the areas and the number of councillors assigned are fixed from time to time by order of the [[Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage]], following a report by the Local Government Commission, and based on population changes recorded in the census.<ref>{{cite Irish legislation|year=2001|number=37|section=23|name=[[Local Government Act 2001]]|access-date=3 September 2007|archive-date=29 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929120616/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2001/en/act/pub/0037/sec0023.html|url-status=live}}</ref>