© 2015 Political Studies Association of Ireland. On Thursday 30 May 2013 the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, issued the Local Electoral Area Boundary Report which redrew the constituency boundaries for the Irish local government elections scheduled to take place in May 2014. The report was drawn up by an independent commission, of which the author was a member, over a period of six months from December 2012 to May 2013 and presented to the minister who promptly published the committee's findings. The report entailed the largest redrawing of local electoral area boundaries since the foundation of the state and involved significant reductions in both the number of councils and councillors. This article presents an insider analytical account of the boundary committee's work and ultimate report. It discusses the place of local government in Irish politics, the political context in which the committee was established, the reform of local government structures by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government, and the ultimate redistricting of the boundaries. It also assesses the implications of the committee's report, and reactions to it, for both electoral integrity and electoral management in the Irish state.