Given that the Cork Boundary Review Group was announced on 15
January and afforded nine months to report, the deadline for the receipt of
submissions should be pushed back beyond the deadline of Friday 27 February, as
the timeframe is too tight.
At the moment, different information sessions have been
organised (e.g. Monday 23 February, 8:00pm at the Imperial Hotel) and I think
it is appropriate that people and stakeholders be given the chance to process
this information and put together well-considered submissions as opposed to
rushing them.
The future governance of Cork is at stake here and if we want
the Smiddy Review Group to base its recommendations on evidence and research,
then it makes sense that the submissions be based on evidence and research.
Within the Terms of Reference there are many layers which go
beyond the two fundamental questions – Should the city boundary be extended? and
Should the City Council and County Council be amalgamated? Under points 5 and 6
of the Terms of Reference there are details to be considered about finance,
structure, municipal districts, a metropolitan district, local democracy,
governance and economies of scale. These all warrant close attention and with a
nine-month window to produce the report there is no need to rush the
submissions into the very start of the process.
Also, the outcome of this process could have far-reaching
consequences for Cork city and county for the next 50 years so we need to get
it right. As we have seen in the area of planning, bad decisions do have
consequences and can be very expensive (and sometimes impossible) to reverse.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, ‘take the time for all
things; great haste makes great waste.’
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