I wrote the piece at the link below in mid-June for the Carrigdhoun newspaper. At the time, the Mackinnon-led “expert” committee had made their recommendation for a 35km-wide City jurisdiction, stretching from Ballincollig to Carrigtwohill, to include Blarney but to exclude Passage West. The debate about this issue rumbles on and Mackinnon’s recommendations make no more sense to me now than they did two months ago.
The County Council has since offered areas closest to Cork City to the City Council. These areas include the Strategic Land Reserve identified by the County for potential residential development. The extent of the land offered is such that it would increase the City’s area by 85%, allow an immediate population increase of 31.2%, a potential population increase of up to 283,600 and would offer a residential density on a par with that in Dublin City . Any feedback I have had from constituents on the County’s most recent offer has been positive; they say it makes far more sense to them than the City boundary proposed by Mackinnon. (Apart from one constituent living in an area close to the City who very much wants no boundary change at all.)
Under Mackinnon’s recommendations, the Cork Harbour area would be split between City and County. It has recently been suggested that I should be pushing for the entire of Cork Harbour to be included in the expanded City boundary. I have in fact already written about this (in the article below), but believe that this oneness would best be achieved in the context of a merger of City and County: