Irish local elections, 2004

← 1999

5 June 2004

2009 →

1,627 County, City, Borough and Town Council Seats

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Bertie Ahern	Enda Kenny	Pat Rabbitte
Party	Fianna Fáil	Fine Gael	Labour Party
Leader since	7 May 2008	6 June 2002	13 October 2001
Percentage	31.8%	27.6%	14.2%
Largest Party	16	10	4
Councillors	542	468	188
Councillors +/-	129	32	18

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Gerry Adams	Trevor Sargent	Mary Harney
Party	Sinn Féin	Green Party	Progressive Democrats
Leader since	13 November 1983	6 November 2001	26 October 1993
Percentage	8.1%	3.9%	3.9%
Largest Party	1	N/A	N/A
Councillors	127	32	32
Councillors +/-	63	15	No Change

The 2004 Irish local elections were held in all the counties, cities and towns of Ireland on 11 June 2004, on the same day as the European elections and referendum on the twenty-seventh amendment of the constitution. Polling was delayed until 19 June 2004 in County Roscommon, due to the sudden death of Councillor Gerry Donnelly.

Turnout was the highest for 20 years at around 60%, but the result was a major setback for Fianna Fáil, which saw its share of the vote drop by 7 percentage points from its 1999 result to only 32%, losing 20% of its council seats. The party lost its majority on Clare County Council for the first time in 70 years, and fell behind Fine Gael in Galway, Limerick and Waterford city councils. Labour's share of the vote remained static at 11% while Fine Gael dropped 1%. Both parties however won seats with the Labour Party becoming the largest party on Dublin City Council. Major gains were made by Sinn Féin which managed to double the number of seats it held, mainly at the expense of Fianna Fáil.

These were the first elections since the Local Government Act 2001 modernised council structures and abolished the dual mandate. Many new councillors were elected for the first time, most notably on Dublin City Council, where 33 of the 52 members were first-timers, which the City Manager described as "unprecedented in the history of local government". Many of the seats vacated by TDs and senators were won by family members.

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