Cork Council Merger: Legislation will take years to happen

The controversial proposed merger of Cork city and county councils will take years to implement with the environment minister admitting the required legislation will not be introduced in the lifetime of the Government.

However, infighting between political and business groups could prevent it ever seeing the light of day.

The recommendation to merge the two councils into one super-authority with three municipal divisions is the upshot of nine months of work by a five-person committee set up to examine two options for future local government arrangements: whether the city boundary should be extended or whether the councils should be unified. The latter option was chosen but the committee failed to reach a consensus position.