The costs of all by-elections held since 2007 are set out in the table below.
Six of the by-elections were held on the same day as another election or a referendum and therefore the by-election costs reflect savings from a sharing of people and facilities (these are marked with an asterisk in the table):
- The Dublin Central and Dublin South by-elections in 2009 were held along with the European Parliament elections.
- The Dublin West by-election in 2011 was held alongside the Presidential election.
- The Dublin West and Longford-Westmeath by-elections in 2014 were both held along with the European Parliament and Local elections.
- The Carlow-Kilkenny by-election in 2015 was held along with the 2015 Marriage Equality and Presidency age referendums.
The costs of the Dublin Mid-West, Wexford and Cork North-Central by-elections held in November 2019 are subject to finalisation and an estimate has been provided.
As a result of changes to the free postage arrangements for candidates (whereby one item of election material was sent to each household in the constituency rather than to each person on the electoral register, where possible), postage costs have been reduced for each by-election from 2014 onwards.
Year/Month
|
By-Election
|
Cost
|
2009
|
Dublin Central and Dublin South*
|
€1,081,339
|
2010 November
|
Donegal South-West
|
€514,027
|
2011 February
|
Dublin West*
|
€424,519
|
2013 March
|
Meath East
|
€472,873
|
2014 May
|
Dublin West*
|
€302,996
|
2014 May
|
Longford Westmeath*
|
€397,148
|
2014 October
|
Dublin South-West
|
€547,080
|
2014 October
|
South Leitrim/Roscommon
|
€564,143
|
2015 May
|
Carlow/Kilkenny*
|
€501,250
|
2019 November
|
Cork North-Central, Dublin Mid-West, and Wexford
|
€3,099,564 (estimate)
|