Local electoral area

The boundaries of LEAs are determined by order of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, usually based on lower-level units called electoral divisions (EDs), with a total of 3,440 EDs in the state.

As well as their use for electoral purposes, LEAs are local administrative units in Eurostat NUTS classification.

[7] In 2019, John Paul Phelan, Minister of State for Local Government and Electoral Reform, commented in the Dáil:[8] Municipal districts have an extensive list of functions currently, but the situation is haphazard ... some local authorities are better at performing some functions than others.

[13] In 2015, separate committees were set up to consider adjustments to county and municipal boundaries passing through each of four urban areas: Athlone, Carlow, Drogheda, and Waterford.

[14] A Boundary Committee established in 2017 and which reported in June 2018 recommended alterations to municipal districts and local electoral areas which were implemented in December 2018.