There are eight regions at
NUTS III level in
Ireland which came into existence in 1994, under the terms of the Local Government Act 1991. The geographical remit of each region is currently defined by combining the areas under the jurisdiction of three or more
LAU-1 units of
local government - the
county and
city councils. One exception is that
North Tipperary and
South Tipperary remain in separate regions despite sharing a single
Tipperary County Council under the
Local Government Reform Act 2014. Each Region was governed by an associated
Regional Authority. The role of the authorities was to monitor and regulate the delivery of the
EU Structural Fund and to promote the co-ordination of the provision of public services. The Regional Authorities were dissolved in 2014 and were replaced by Regional Assemblies.