The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning and development, amenity and culture, and environment.

[8] The 2015 Cork Local Government Review had recommended merging Cork City Council and Cork County Council into a single "super council"; however, a minority report opposed the merger, with a subsequent report published by an expert advisory group in 2017 recommending a city boundary extension.

[9][10][11] Cork County Council has five representatives on the Southern Regional Assembly who are part of the South-West Strategic Planning Area Committee.

[12] Members of Cork County Council are elected for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV) from multi-member local electoral areas (LEAs).

and those parts of the electoral divisions of Ballincollig, Blarney, Carrigrohanebeg, Matehy and Ovens that are not contained within the City of Cork.