John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We had a discussion about this with officials and Ministers in the Department. The Cork local election boundaries for the wards in the city and the districts in the county will be part of the national publication of the reports of the two committees that are examining local authority electoral areas. It will not be treated differently. At the moment it is being parked because there are 31 local authorities. There is plenty of work for those committees to do and Cork will be left towards the end of their work so that when the heads of the Bill are published, and I hope that will happen in April, they will be able to go into the formal process of considering drawing the local authority electoral area boundaries within Cork city and county, and then publish a request for consultation with the general public who might have observations and submissions to make. It has always been my intention, and it is that of the Government, that we would have boundaries a year out from the next local election.