Party splits emerge over boundary dealPARTY splits have emerged in County Hall with councillors at loggerheads over the city boundary extension and disagreement over whether the loss of Blarney, Tower, Cork Airport, Inniscarra and Glanmire should be accepted. After a deal was agreed by city and county chief executives Ann Doherty and Tim Lucey last week, the city is now set to expand from a population of 125,000 to 210,000. Fine Gael party leader Kevin Murphy said that while he was disappointed with the outcome, the Council would be ill-advised to not agree to the current deal. Sinn Fein’s Des O’Grady said the party were not entirely happy with the extension but supported the current deal and that compensation would be paid to the County Council from the city ‘in perpetuity’. Labour’s Cathal Rasmussen said he was very unhappy with the process and the level of detail on how the boundary extension will work while Social Democrat leader Joe Harris said the boundary should be the subject of a judicial review.

Source: Evening echo December 12, 2017 10:30 UTC