Laois County Council are responsible for the provision and maintenance of 27 cemeteries in the County.
Cemetery Bye Laws
The Laois County Council Bye-Laws 2022 came into effect on 28th November 2022. The Bye Laws provide for the regulation of Cemeteries in the County of Laois and applies to all Cemeteries under the control or under ownership of Laois County Council. Click here to read about Cemetery Bye-Laws.
Application Form for right of Burial
Click here for application form
Application for entry to the Register of Independent Cemetery Contractors as
provided for in Section 39 of the Laois County Council (Cemetery) Byelaws 2022
Independent Cemetery Contractor application form
Cemetery Registrars
Cemetery Registrars are employed for each Council Cemetery with responsibility for sale of plots and the maintenance of the burial ground register. If you wish to purchase a plot you should contact the Registrar of the appropriate cemetery. Contact details for each Cemetery Registrar can be found here
Independent Cemetery Contractors
Independent Cemetery Contractor means a person or business who executes work or seeks to execute work within a cemetery and includes any gravedigger, erector of monuments, funeral director or other contractor or person not employed directly by the Council to execute work in a cemetery.
Section 39 of the Laois County Council Cemetery Byelaws 2022 makes provision for the establishment of a register of Independent Cemetery Contractors. Section 39 of the Cemetery Byelaws also makes provision for the Council to set conditions for admission to the register together with conditions for maintaining an entry on the register.
To see the Register of Approved Independent Cemetery Contractors, click here
Only contractors who are listed on the register of Independent Cemetery Contractors are authorised to undertake works in any cemetery managed by or under the control of Laois County Council.
Persons seeking to engage a contractor to undertake work in a Laois County Council cemetery shall select a contractor from the register of Approved Independent Cemetery Contractors – link provided below.
Lawn Cemeteries
Lawn Cemetery means a Cemetery or part of a Cemetery wherein kerbs or other similar items shall not be permitted to be placed and where all parts of the Cemetery comprising burial plots shall be maintained as grassed areas.
The following cemeteries currently operate as lawn cemeteries:
Ballyfin (New Section)
Ballylinan (New Section)
Ballinakill (New Section)
Ballacolla (New Section)
Borris-In Ossory (New Section)
Castletown (New Section)
Durrow (New Section)
Killenard (New Section)
Mountmellick (New Section)
Rosenallis (New Section)
Rathdowney – Bealady (New Section)
Shanahoe (New Section)
Sleaty (New Section)
Monuments
No Tomb, Monument, Vault, Headstone, Tablet or permanent structure of any description or material shall be erected or constructed on any place of burial in the cemetery, unless and until the structure has been approved of, in writing, in the form of a Certificate of Permission by the Council’s Engineer, or such other Officer as the Council shall appoint for this purpose. Permission can be sought by completing an Application for Certificate of Permission for a Monument.
The Council may take down any monument which shall have been erected contrary to the terms and conditions upon which permission to erect same was granted, or in the event of it being erected without an official Certificate of Permission from the Council, or in the event of it exceeding the height permitted by the Bye Laws.
Application for Certificate of Permission for a Monument
Cemetery Grant Scheme
Laois County Council operates a Cemetery Grant Scheme to assist Cemetery Committees and Community Groups to maintain their Local Cemetery.
Exhumations:
If you wish to request an Exhumation you should fill in the Exhumation Licence Application Form and remember to enclose relevant death certificate. Please make sure all details are accurate. You should return completed application form to Water Services Department, Laois County Council, Áras an Chontae, Portlaoise, Co. Laois.
More information on cemeteries in Laois is available from the Heritage section of the website.