The Local Government Act, 2001 (No. 37 of 2001) was enacted by the Oireachtas of the Republic of Ireland on 21 July 2001. Most of the provisions of the Act came into operation on 1 January 2002.
According to the explanatory memorandum issued before the passing of the Act, its purposes were to:
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The Act established local government areas based on those already created by previous legislation. The types of areas listed in the Act are:
Counties: Identical to the administrative counties established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 and modified by later legislation. The opportunity was taken to rename Tipperary (North Riding) and Tipperary (South Riding) as North Tipperary and South Tipperary respectively.
Cities: These were the County boroughs created by the 1898 Act and later legislation, renamed. All the county boroughs except Galway had previously had the courtesy title of city by charter or letters patent.
Boroughs: The five existing non-county boroughs continued in existence. In addition it was recognised that Kilkenny could continue to be called a city, in spite of being governed by a borough council and not being a former county borough.
Towns: The remaining town authorities, formerly known as urban districts or towns with town commissioners, were all redesignated as towns.
A council was established for each of the local government areas with the title county council, city council, borough council, or town council (as appropriate).
One of the most controversial aspects of the Act was the abolition of the so-called "dual mandate". This meant that members of the Oireachtas (Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann) could no longer be candidates for local authority elections.
The Act established a Local Government Commission to oversee such matters as alteration of boundaries and the establishment and dissolution of local authorities.