Governing from the metropolitan scale is not a concept that is widely comprehended in Ireland. And yet, the 2018 National Planning Framework (NPF) statutorily mandates Ireland’s three regional assemblies to develop what they term Metropolitan Area Strategic Plans (MASP) for each of their respective regional cities. This is a challenge for the three regional assemblies because the purpose and power of the metropolitan scale and its designation is little understood amongst planners, policymakers and the general public. Additionally in a staunchly centralised Ireland, the regional assemblies as governance bodies are under-recognised and underappreciated. When done correctly, various opportunities can stem from city-regional governance. Amongst development scholars, strengthening lower tiers of governance is beneficial particularly to identify places in need of policy attention. However, in order to effectively legitimise meso-level governance and to successfully implement the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSES) and MASPs, people’s awareness of how the city-regional scale can benefit them and their locality must first be addressed. This policy report is based on research that took place between September 2021 – December 2022. Funded jointly by the Irish Research Council (IRC) and the Southern Regional Assembly (SRA), the research focuses on Ireland’s Southern Region, its Assembly (SRA) and its executive (SRA Executive) as a case study to observe and document the relatively new process of ‘metropolitanisation’ in Ireland in order to offer insight into implementation