Planning experts say merger of councils would fail Cork

Three planning experts have warned against merging Cork city and county councils, claiming that a single authority will be oversized, unwieldy, undemocratic and unworkable.

“A combined authority simply cannot provide the required focus to govern the needs of Ireland’s second city as well as Ireland’s biggest county at the same time,” they said.

William Brady, Jonathan Hall and Brendan O’Sullivan, of UCC’s Centre for Planning Education and Research, make their comments after the Cork Local Government Review (CLGR) committee’s report this week. It was split three-to-two in favour or a merger.