LOCAL REPRESENTATION DECIMATED: AN ANALYSIS OF COUNTY CORK

It is clear that the abolition of town councils means nothing in Dublin where there are four big ‘top tier’ local authorities. The obsession there is with the issue of a directly elected mayor. Meanwhile, across Ireland, more fundamental representation is at stake. For example, let us look at the county of Cork – the biggest county in Ireland.

Excluding entirely the city area (where the number of councillors remains the same at 31) we can see that local government representation falls from 156 to 55 – a massive drop by any standards.

 

At the 2009 local elections, 48 members were elected to Cork County Council through the following Local Electoral Areas (LEAs):

·         Bandon LEA - 3 seats

·         Blarney LEA - 4 seats

·         Carrigaline LEA - 6 seats

·         Macroom LEA - 4 seats

·         Midleton LEA - 6 seats

·         Bantry LEA - 5 seats

·         Skibbereen LEA - 7 seats

·         Fermoy LEA - 4 seats

·         Kanturk LEA - 4 seats

·         Mallow LEA - 5 seats

 

In addition to Cork County Council, there were 12 town councils – Bandon, Bantry, Clonakilty, Cobh, Fermoy, Kinsale, Macroom, Mallow, Midleton, Passage West, Skibbereen, and Youghal – with 9 elected members on each, for a total of 108 town councillors.

 

We will see a massive change in 2014, especially in West Cork.

 

With the amputation of the town councils, we will be left with a 55-member Cork County Council, drawn from 8 LEAs.

 

·         Blarney-Macroom: 6 seats

·         Kanturk-Mallow: 6 seats

·         Fermoy: 6 seats

·         East Cork: 6 seats

·         Cobh: 7 seats

·         Ballincollig-Carrigaline: 10 seats

·         Bandon-Kinsale: 6 seats

·         West Cork: 8 seats

In 2009, West Cork had 12 county councillors drawn from the Bantry and Skibbereen LEAs as well as 27 town councillors from Bantry, Clonakilty and Skibbereen. As a result of local government ‘reform’ West Cork will be left with 8 councillors covering an enormous jurisdiction. Is this progress?

 

Back in 1924, the Phil Hogan of the day sought to abolish Rural District Councils in the name of efficiency and cost savings. What was really meant of course was centralisation. The Free State government had already demonstrated its centralist tendencies by passing in 1923 a remarkable piece of legislation which gave the Minister the power to dissolve local authorities if he deemed them to be underperforming.

 

During the Dail debate in 1924 on the abolition of Rural District Councils, John Daly TD, an Independent from Cork, asked, ‘What would a man from Bantry Bay know about affairs in Araglen?’

 

The world is a smaller place today and we have a continuous 24/7 news cycle as well as the internet and Twitter so it is easy to poke fun at John Daly but he knew what he was talking about. He finished his contribution to the debate by saying – ‘Local representatives know their area best of all and should be given the power to tackle local problems appropriately.’

 

In my humble opinion, this sentence should be pinned to the wall in every office of the Custom House.