County Carlow was divided into two local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

Carlow County Council had been allocated 21 seats under the Local Government Act 2001.

In the case of Carlow County Council, it recommended an decrease to 18 seats.

Their colleagues in government, the Labour Party, lost three-fifths of their councillors being reduced to just 2 seats.

Fianna Fáil gained a seat to return 5 members and reported a higher vote than Fine Gael but the big winners were Sinn Féin who won 3 seats to supplant Labour as the traditional third-largest party.