Cork Local Government Review

The Cork Local Government Review was a 2015 review carried out by the Cork Local Government Committee of the operation of Cork County Council and Cork City Council in Ireland. Its report recommends merging them into a single "super-council" with effect from the 2019 local elections.[1]

Committee

The committee's terms of reference were specified by Alan Kelly, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, under the Local Government Act 2001.[2] It could recommend either merging the two councils into a single local government area for County Cork, or else adjusting the boundary between Cork city and the county. The five committee members were:[3]

Report

After a public consultation, its report was submitted in September 2015. The majority report, by Smiddy, Curran, and Lucey, recommends a single council, with more powers than existing county councils have under the 2001 act and the Local Government Reform Act 2014. The super-council would have three subunits called "divisions", one being a "metropolitan division" around Cork city, the others respectively covering the north and east of the county and the south and west of it. The divisions would be further divided into municipal districts as defined under the 2014 act. Keogh and Reidy submitted a minority report arguing for retention of two separate councils. The minority report interpreted the "metropolitan division" proposed in the majority report as nothing more than a municipal district with no budgetary powers.

City/metropolitan boundary

The majority report recommended that the "metropolitan division" around the city should correspond to the existing Metropolitan Cork statistical area, with a population of 289,739, as far out as Ballinhassig, Minane Bridge, Cloyne, Midleton, Watergrasshill, and Dripsey.[4] It did not specify a boundary for the "metropolitan district" within the metropolitan division, but said all municipal district boundaries should be redrawn by an implementation committee.[5]

The minority report recommended that the city boundary be extended to the satellite towns of Ballincollig, Blarney, Carrigtwohill, and Carrigaline, but not Midleton or Cobh. It would have a population between 230,000 and 235,000, the precise boundary to be negotiated between the city and county councils.[6]

Cork city and hinterland areas considered by the Review[7]
Description Area (km2) 2011 census
City council local government area 40 119,230
Central Statistics Office census "city and suburbs" area 165 198,582
"Cork Metropolitan Area" in city council's submission to the Review c.235,000
"Metropolitan Cork" for strategic regional planning 834 289,739
"Study area" for the Cork Area Strategic Plan 4,102 408,157
Combined city and county council local government areas 7,505 519,032

Response

In general, politicians from the county agreed with the majority report, while politicians and civic groups from the city favoured retaining a separate city council.[1] Cork South Central TD Ciarán Lynch commissioned a poll of the constituency showing 59 percent support for boundary extension and 23 percent for amalgamation, which county mayor John Paul O’Shea criticised as a "biased survey".[8]

Eighteen former Lord Mayors of the city signed a letter opposing any merger with the county.[9][1][10] A specially convened meeting of the city council on 22 September 2015 resolved by 29 votes to none to seek a judicial review in the High Court of the proposal's constitutionality, and to write to the Taoiseach and minister demanding a halt to the process.[11][12] The county council endorsed the majority report on 28 September 2015, with only Sinn Féin councillors opposed.[13]

Alan Kelly, the responsible minister, backed the majority report.[14] Simon Coveney, a government minister from near Carrigaline, advised voters to read the full report before passing judgment.[15] Michael McCarthy, Labour TD for Cork South–West, and chair of the Dáil committee on environment and local government, invited the review committee members to address the Dáil committee.[16]

Cork chamber of commerce, which straddles both council areas, favours amalgamation.[1] The Cork branch of IBEC made a submission in favour of retaining separate councils but subsequently endorsed the majority report, denying this was a U-turn.[17] Cork Institute of Technology president Brendan Murphy backed the merger; UCC did not initially take a position, while defending the right of the UCC faculty on the committee to express a minority view.[18]

In a February 2016 debate before the general election, eight of nine Cork candidates were opposed to the merger, with Fine Gael's Dara Murphy saying "It has been too divisive. What we are left with now is the status quo, which is the worst of both worlds."[19]

References and source

Citations
  1. 1 2 3 4 "Merger of Cork councils to be in place for 2019 elections". Evening Echo. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "Terms of Reference". Cork Local Government Review. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Committee Members' Biographies". Cork Local Government Review. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Report, pp.58,84
  5. ↑ Report, p.58
  6. ↑ Report Appendix 6 (Minority Report), pp.33–34
  7. ↑ Report section 2.1
  8. ↑ Roche, Barry; Kelleher, Olivia (17 September 2015). "Mayor urges withdrawal of poll showing few back council merger". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Report Appendix 6 (Minority Report), pp.83–85
  10. ↑ Roche, Barry (4 August 2015). "Cork city must retain power to self-govern, say 18 former mayors". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "City Council goes to court to prevent merger". Evening Echo. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "Legal challenge against Cork City Council merger". RTÉ.ie. 22 September 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  13. ↑ O’Riordan, Sean (28 September 2015). "Cork County Council favours merger". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  14. ↑ Roche, Barry (23 September 2015). "Alan Kelly backs report on Cork councils merger". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  15. ↑ "Cork merger report in full". Evening Echo. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  16. ↑ English, Eoin (3 October 2015). "Cork merger plan to go to committee". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  17. ↑ Roche, Barry (23 September 2015). "Cork Ibec defends decision to change position on merger of councils". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  18. ↑ English, Eoin (18 September 2015). "University boss Michael Murphy says UCC considering council merger stance". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  19. ↑ "Candidates 'no' to council merger". Evening Echo. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
Sources

External links

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