County Cork has a population of 361, 766 (2006 Census), which represents a 10.2% increase over the 2002 Census. The county is served by 48 councillors, representing eight electoral divisions, and is the largest elected assembly outside of Dublin. There are 186,200 households in County Cork and there are 286,569 names on the 2006/2007 Register.

Cork County Hall was officially opened on the 16th of Apil 1968 by Mr. Martin J. Corry T.D., Chairman of Cork County Council, in the presence of the County Manager Mr. Michael Conlon and the elected members. The original County Hall was designed by Mr. P. L. McSweeney, Cork County Architect and the General Contractors were P.J. Hegarty & Sons, Ltd. Cork. The re-developed Cork County Hall was officially opened on the 26th of June 2006 by Councillor Michael Creed, Mayor of the County of Cork, in the presence of the County Manager Mr. Maurice Moloney and the elected members. The re-development works were designed by Shay Cleary Architects and the General Contractors were Rohcon Ltd.

County Hall stands 65 metres tall, Ireland's tallest building for forty years until the Elysian Tower (81 metres) in the city centre was completed in 2008.

Cork County Council employs over 2,700 people, and the annual turnover (revenue and capital) in 2008 was €750 million. There are three divisional offices in Mallow, Clonakilty and Skibbereen; 12 Town Council offices in Bantry, Bandon, Clonakilty, Cobh, Fermoy, Kinsale, Macroom, Mallow, Midleton, Passage, Skibbereen and Youghal; and 22 Area Offices.

Infrastructure

County Cork covers an area of 7,459 square kilometres (2,880 square miles), which is 11% of the Irish State and makes Cork Ireland's largest county. With over 7,500 miles of public roads, Cork County Council's transportation network equates to 14% of the nation's total. Over €550 million was spent in last five years on road maintenance and improvement in Cork County. The current annual cost of public lighting is €3.4 million. An additional €12 million has been spent on improvements to piers and harbours in the last 5 years.

Ireland's only cable car spans the 200 metres of Dursey Sound in West Cork, and can carry six passengers at a height of 25 metres over high water. It can also operate in up to force 8 weather conditions. The distance from Dublin to Dursey is 400 kilometres (250 miles). Mitchelstown, at the other end of County Cork, is exactly halfway between the two.

Planning

Nearly 30,000 planning applications have been received and processed in the last 5 years by Cork County Council's Planning Department. Over the past 3 years, planning permission has been granted for 7,000 one-off houses. The Cork Rural Design Guide, published by the Planning Policy Unit, is invaluable for anyone proposing to build, renovate or extend individual houses.

Fire Service

Each year, €10.2 million is spent on delivering the County Fire Service. In 2003, new fire stations were opened in Fermoy, Ballincollig and Skibbereen. A new station is currently under construction in Kinsale.

The cost of a new fire tender is currently €254,000. In 2003, 2,569 incidents were dealt with by the Council's Fire Service. However, 17.9% of calls to the fire service are false alarms or hoaxes - an extremely disturbing statistic.

Environment

The coastline of County Cork measures approximately 1,100 kilometres (680 miles), which is 19% of the Irish State's coastline. County Cork has achieved Blue Flag status for nine of its beaches. The county also has the greatest number of rivers in Ireland, with 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) of main river channels. These are the source of over 30 million gallons (136 million litres) of drinking water every day. The level of unpolluted waters in County Cork is 81%, which is significantly higher than the national average.

Pay By Weight

Refuse collection has at present reduced the level of waste going to landfill from the average household by one third, from 1.25 tonnes to 0.8 tonnes. Every major town will have a civic amenity site within the next 3 to 4 years.

Cork County Council's environmental staff carry out over 1,000 farm inspections annually.

County Council Library Services - Interesting Facts

There are nearly 50,000-registered library users in County Cork.
The cost of joining your local library is only €2.50.
There are almost 1,300,000 visits to the Councils library network annually.
The number of items borrowed through the library network annually exceeds 1,200,000.
The Council adds nearly 60,000 books per year to its lending stock.
There are 128 people working in the 28 library locations across the county.