The biggest rebranding exercise in the history of local democracy is under way as 87 of the State's local authorities begin changing their names.
Under legislation which came into effect on January 1st, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissions became town councils, five corporations changed to city councils, five borough corporations changed to borough councils and two ridings became county councils.
The changes require a massive logistical operation to incorporate the new names on headed paper, application forms, bills, public notices, summonses, reports, business cards, signs, vehicles, equipment and uniforms.
Dublin City Council, formerly Dublin Corporation, has taken out newspaper advertisements this week to notify the public of the change.
"It will take a while for people to get used to the new name, but we're keen to have them remember it when they are writing cheques for motor tax and so on," said Ms Deirdre Ní Raghallaigh, senior executive officer in charge of the changeover.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh said the city council was taking a "common sense approach" to the rebranding.
"We're letting existing stationery stocks run down first and changing things as they come up for renewal and replacement.
"The only exception is signs on building. We may have to do that sooner. We have a designer working on a new logo, and that should be ready by the end of the month," she said. The changeover would take between a year and 18 months to complete.
Cork City Council, formerly Cork Corporation, is also phasing in the changes.
"It's a fairly large task and we're taking it bit by bit," said Mr Martin Riordan, director of services, corporate affairs.
"We have over 1,300 staff who are all affected by this in one way or another. We have to deal with the most visible elements first. The depots, libraries, swimming pools and other buildings all have to have signage changed,
"The most important message we are trying to get across is that it's not just a change of name. There are changes in the way we run things, too.
"We don't have assistant managers any more; we have directors of services. And roles and responsibilities are being redefined."
Neither city council had an estimate of the cost of making the changes but said it would become clearer in the coming months.
The Department of Environment and Local Government said all local authorities involved would be expected to cover the costs themselves. A spokeswoman said they were not under pressure to implement all changes immediately but had been asked to do so "as soon as possible".
The reason for changing the names was to modernise, standardise and simplify titles, the spokeswoman said.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh said she accepted the rationale.
"One way it would affect us is when we have foreign delegations." Generally, the word "corporation" meant a profit-making international business to such delegations, she explained.