Louth is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects five deputies (Teachtaí Dála, commonly known as TDs) on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV). It covers the entirety of County Louth and a small area of County Meath.
Contents
Boundaries
The constituency was created by the Electoral Act 1923, and first used at the 1923 general election. It currently spans the entire area of County Louth (which includes the towns of Ardee, Dundalk, Drogheda), the smallest county in Ireland, and a part of County Meath including the suburbs of Drogheda.
The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023 defines the constituency as:
TDs
Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.
Electoral division
Louth population as per electoral division, for the Dáil constituency of Louth. This population count includes those within the county of Louth, as well as the electoral divisions of Julianstown, and St. Mary's (part) in the county of Meath, as per the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017.
Elections
^ *: Outgoing TD
2011 general election
Séamus Kirk was Ceann Comhairle at the dissolution of the 30th Dáil and therefore deemed to be returned automatically. The constituency was treated as a four-seater for the purposes of calculating the quota.
1981 general election
Pádraig Faulkner was Ceann Comhairle at the dissolution of the 21st Dáil and therefore deemed to be returned automatically. The constituency was treated as a three-seater for the purposes of calculating the quota.
1954 by-election
Fine Gael TD James Coburn died on 5 December 1953. A by-election was held to fill the vacancy on 3 March 1954. The seat was won by the Fine Gael candidate George Coburn, son of the deceased TD.