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

[2] In the early 1930s, the County Council was dissolved for a time and replaced with a Commissioner because of the Mayo librarian controversy.

Mayo County Council has two representatives on the Northern and Western Regional Assembly who are part of the West Strategic Planning Area Committee.

Overdevelopment in Mayo was another problem identified, with too many vacant houses in the county (not inclusive of holiday homes).

What a lot of local authorities don't seem to appreciate is that it is more expensive to provide infrastructure to one-off houses in the countryside than it is to do so to estates.