THE TWO existing county councils in Tipperary will be merged into one unified council, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has announced.
Mr Hogan also said that following the recent decision to merge Limerick city and county councils he was now examining the prospect of merging Waterford county and city councils.
The Cabinet yesterday approved Mr Hogan’s plans to merge the existing north and south Tipperary councils which will cater for a population of 159,000.
The Minister said later the origin of the two councils in the county went back to the Middle Ages. He added that one of the reasons for retention of both Tipperary councils in the 1898 Local Government Act was the lawlessness of the county but that consideration no longer applied.
The Minister pointed out that the merger of north and south Tipperary councils was recommended in the 2010 Local Government Efficiency Review Group report.
It is designed to achieve savings through the removal of duplication, with integration of administrations and service delivery.
The merger should enable commercial rates in north Tipperary, currently €60.13, to be reduced to the south Tipperary level of €56.77, which is estimated to cost about €389,000.
“A unified local authority, following 173 years of separation, will serve an increased population, should have greater scale, strength, assets and capacity to help meet challenges arising and to promote the economic and social development of the county as a whole,” said Mr Hogan.
The membership of the new authority after the next local elections in 2014 will be in line with the membership of similarly populated counties. There will be a review of local electoral areas next year.
County development boards, joint policing committees and any other bodies which are linked to or mirror local authority structures, such as the county enterprise boards will be restructured.
