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.
Contents
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. 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:
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 separate city and county councils, with a boundary adjustment increasing the area of the city council. 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. 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.
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.
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. 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".
Eighteen former Lord Mayors of the city signed a letter opposing any merger with the county. 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. The county council endorsed the majority report on 28 September 2015, with only Sinn Féin councillors opposed.
Alan Kelly, the responsible minister, backed the majority report. Simon Coveney, a government minister from near Carrigaline, advised voters to read the full report before passing judgment. In the Dáil, Micheál Martin and Jonathan O'Brien opposed it while Kelly supported it. In the Seanad, Paul Bradford opposed while junior minister Jimmy Deenihan replied that there were "obviously pros and cons". Michael McCarthy, Labour TD for Cork South–West, and chair of the Dáil Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht, invited the review committee members to address the Dáil committee.
Cork chamber of commerce, which straddles both council areas, favours amalgamation. 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. 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.
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."
UCC commissioned Tony Bovaird of the University of Birmingham to review both majority and minority reports. Bovaird said the minority report was "much better substantiated", while Alf Smiddy dismissed Bovaird's review as "a continuation of an ongoing orchestrated saga from certain narrow quarters to frustrate the Government".
Expert advisory group
Early in 2016, the Cork report was considered by the government's Committee on Social Policy and Public Service Reform, along with another recommending merging Galway City and County. After the 2016 election, Simon Coveney became Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in the Fine Gael–led government. In June, he announced that a new expert group would take "a fresh look" at the Cork question. In September, he appointed an "expert advisory group" with detailed terms of reference including "having regard particularly to the review carried out by the Cork Local Government Review Committee and its report". The group's members are: .
The group is expected to report in early 2017.