European Parliament and Local Elections to be held on Friday 23 May 2014.

Mr. Phil Hogan T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, today announced that the Government has agreed that the European Parliament and Local Elections will be held on Friday 23 May 2014. Polling will be between the hours of 7am and 10pm on that day.

Every person aged 18 years or over is entitled to be registered as a local government elector for the local electoral area where they ordinarily reside - citizenship is not a requirement for voting at the local elections. Every person who is a citizen of Ireland or who is ordinarily resident in the State and has reached the age of 18 years and who is not subject to any disqualification is eligible for election to a local authority. At the local elections 949 members of 31 local authorities will be elected in 137 local electoral areas.


Every Irish and other EU citizen living in Ireland aged 18 years or over is entitled to be registered to vote at the European Parliament elections in Ireland. Every Irish citizen and other EU citizen living in Ireland who has reached the age of 21 years and who is not subject to any disqualification can stand for election in any European constituency in the State. 11 MEPs will be elected in the State at the European Parliament elections next May. The proposed three constituencies in which MEPs will be elected are specified in the European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Bill 2013 which is scheduled to be debated in the Oireachtas this month.

There are some 3.25 million local government and European electors on the current register. A new register of electors, which will apply at the elections, will be published on 1 February 2014 and come into force on 15 February 2014.

I would encourage people who are eligible to vote but who missed the opportunity to get on this new register when it was being prepared to apply for inclusion in the supplement to the register of electors at the earliest opportunity. Application forms will need to be received by the registration authority for the area in which the applicant is resident not later than 6 May 2014. For those seeking inclusion in the supplement to the postal and special voters lists, the application forms will need to be received by the registration authority not later than 26 April 2014.