Many of the authorities' statutory functions are, however, the responsibility of ministerially appointed career officials termed Chief executives.

[6] The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 is the founding document of the present system.

[8][9][10] The county was a unit of judicial and administrative government introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion.

Some of these, such as the barony and grand jury, no longer fulfil their original purpose while retaining only vestigial legal relevance in the modern state.

Others, such as the poor law unions, have been transformed into entities still in use by the modern state, but again, their original functions have been substantially altered.

The Local Government Reform Act 2014 enacted changes which took effect after the 2014 local elections: The civic and ceremonial status of existing cities, boroughs and larger towns was retained after being merged with counties.

[12] Support for directly elected mayors has been almost equally divided when put to a popular vote.

[18] Following the abolition of domestic property rates in the late 1970s, local councils found it extremely difficult to raise money.

[19] The dependence on Exchequer has led to charges that Ireland has an overly centralised system of local government.

Over the past three decades numerous studies carried out by consultants on behalf of the Government have recommended the reintroduction of some form of local taxation/charging regime, but these were generally seen as politically unacceptable.

Local government has progressively lost control over services to national and regional bodies, particularly since the foundation of the state in 1922.

Additionally, the trend has been to remove decision-making from elected councillors to full-time professionals and officials.

Fingal County Manager David O'Connor: "Local Authorities perform both a representational and an operational role because the Irish system of Local Government encompasses both democratic representation and public administration.