The mayors of the city and county councils in Cork have welcomed an agreed city boundary extension which could see its population double within weeks.

The way the latest boundary extension story was leaked, compounded by repeated delays of a meeting to discuss its fallout, seriously angered many county councillors, writes Sean O’Riordan.

We’ve done our bit — now it’s up to the minister.

Fresh efforts are underway to break the impasse over the controversial Cork city boundary extension.

Cork’s city councillors have rejected an invitation from the county for their chief executives to engage in “bilateral meetings” on the contentious city boundary extension issue.

Local Government Minister Eoghan Murphy has been given until Monday to appoint an independent mediator to sort out the row over Cork City’s boundary extension, or face High Court action to prevent it.

The two biggest business lobby groups in Cork have united to call for ministerial intervention to deliver a swift resolution to the city boundary standoff.

Kerry football legend Pat Spillane has ‘red-carded’ the Mackinnon recommendations for a major boundary extension of Cork City, but said the county council will have to cede more territory than it’s currently offering.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has criticised “scaremongering” over the contentious Cork city boundary extension issue and has urged the two local authorities to “engage constructively” with the group set up to implement it.

Cork county councillors have insisted that their staff are kept constantly updated on any transfers to City Hall they may face as a result of the city’s proposed boundary extension.

Cork’s county councillors have been accused of abusing a provision of the 1991 Local Government Act to stall the extension of the city boundary.

Cork City Council is poised to go on a PR offensive amid ongoing controversy over the city boundary extension.

An overwhelming majority of Cork’s 22 senators and TDs oppose the recommendations of the Mackinnon report to extend the city’s boundary.

More than 12,000 farmers in Cork want the proposed Mackinnon boundary extension report scrapped and have called for the formation of a single local authority to run the city and county.

The Mayor of Co Cork has launched a further attack on the Mackinnon report into the city’s boundary extension, describing it as ill-conceived” and “more reminiscent of a child’s scribble on a map rather than a logical, considered conclusion”.

The Mayor of the County of Cork, Declan Hurley, says he is disappointed “by the obvious lack of adequate assessment and consideration” given by City Hall to the County Hall’s offer and solution to extending the city boundary.

Securing a significant extension of Cork’s city boundary is now of national importance, a city councillor warned last night as they rejected a land offer from the county.

The Mackinnon report’s recommendation of an extension of the Cork City boundary is “nothing more than an attempted rates and land grab”, residents in a Co Cork town have complained.

The vast majority of people living on the fringes of Cork City have backed experts who favour a boundary extension, a survey has found.