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Merging City and County councils

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  • 30-09-2015 11:29pm
    #1
    realitykeeper
    Registered Users Posts: 4,138 ✭✭✭


    The councilors and the developers have expressed opposition to the plan to merge the city and county councils. To me it sound like a good idea even if some developers threaten to move their businesses elsewhere. Anything that reduces bureaucracy is to be welcomed.


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    #2
    StonyIron
    Closed Accounts Posts: 409 ✭✭StonyIron


    How exactly would if reduce bureaucracy?!

    You'll simply be replacing the City Council which has local accountability with a big amorphous regional council which will be far more difficult to hold to account locally.

    The bureaucracy will be exactly the same as this proposal does absolutely nothing to deal with bureaucracy, which incidentally isn't very burdensome in Cork anyway.

    All you'd be doing is diluting local democracy.


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    #3
    JustAThought
    Registered Users Posts: 5,323 ✭✭✭JustAThought


    Em , they actually already did this a few year back - massive waste of time & money - same hamsters different wheels


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    #4
    mire
    Registered Users Posts: 490 ✭✭mire


    realitykeeper wrote: »
    The councilors and the developers have expressed opposition to the plan to merge the city and county councils. To me it sound like a good idea even if some developers threaten to move their businesses elsewhere. Anything that reduces bureaucracy is to be welcomed.

    What would you imagine the benefits of an amalgamation be? For Cork's citizens and businesses? If you truly do believe that it would 'reduce bureaucracy', how so?


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    #5
    flo8s967qjh0nd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 879 ✭✭✭flo8s967qjh0nd


    I can see how it might be a gut reaction to say that such a merger will 'reduce bureaucracy' if it was the case that the City and County Councils provided the same services to the same people. However, as it currently stands they do provide some similar services but to an entirely different cohort of people.
    The savings and red-tape-cutting that is talked about are completely overblown in my opinion.


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    #6
    Cape Clear
    Registered Users Posts: 2,594 ✭✭✭Cape Clear


    realitykeeper wrote: »
    The councilors and the developers have expressed opposition to the plan to merge the city and county councils. To me it sound like a good idea even if some developers threaten to move their businesses elsewhere. Anything that reduces bureaucracy is to be welcomed.

    Turkeys don't vote for Christmas I guess!


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    #7
    mire
    Registered Users Posts: 490 ✭✭mire


    Cape Clear wrote: »
    Turkeys don't vote for Christmas I guess!

    In the event of an amalgamation, there would be no reduction in Councillors. It is proposed to retain the 31 city and 55 county members. So, that whole 'Turkeys don't vote for Christmas' line is irrelevant.


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    #8
    Cape Clear
    Registered Users Posts: 2,594 ✭✭✭Cape Clear


    mire wrote: »
    In the event of an amalgamation, there would be no reduction in Councillors. It is proposed to retain the 31 city and 55 county members. So, that whole 'Turkeys don't vote for Christmas' line is irrelevant.

    Completely relevant cllrs see this as an attack on their "profession" being a member of an 86 seat council instead of a 30 or 50 odd seat means less prestige. All parties have leaders in both the county and city council under the new council you would not have two leaders from the one party. Also I'd imagine you would not have duplication of committees. In short you will have the same number of cllrs and less plum jobs. By the way I don't think this merger goes far enough give the population size of city & county 520,000 the current representation rate per Cllr is 6,400 people I would increase this to 1 per 10,000 people and reduce the seats to 50 or so.


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    #9
    mire
    Registered Users Posts: 490 ✭✭mire


    Cape Clear wrote: »
    Completely relevant cllrs see this as an attack on their "profession" being a member of an 86 seat council instead of a 30 or 50 odd seat means less prestige. All parties have leaders in both the county and city council under the new council you would not have two leaders from the one party. Also I'd imagine you would not have duplication of committees. In short you will have the same number of cllrs and less plum jobs. By the way I don't think this merger goes far enough give the population size of city & county 520,000 the current representation rate per Cllr is 6,400 people I would increase this to 1 per 10,000 people and reduce the seats to 50 or so.

    As I pointed out, there will be no reduction in Councillors, or the overall bill for employing the members. That myth is baseless. Yes, there will be a reduction in each Councillor's effective impact in that each individual will be 1/86th of a council as opposed to 1/31st or 1/55th. In my view, that is a legitimate concern; not just for Councillors, but for citizens. On what basis do you propose to reduce representation in Cork to 1 per 10,000? That's a very high ratio. Why should Cork have less democratic representation than other parts of the state, and less than most other European states?


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