Bord Snips most explosive reccomendation is...

mike65

...the abolishment the City councils outside Dublin, ditch all local town councils and merge 4 counties administrations - Carlow/Kilkenny, Sligo/Leitrim.

Ohh, lets the fun and games begin!

Climber

I think sacking 17,000 civil servants is quite explosive!

Victor

mike65 wrote: »

...the abolishment the City councils outside Dublin, ditch all local town councils and merge 4 counties administrations - Carlow/Kilkenny, Sligo/Leitrim.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree. The county councils in Cork and Limerick cause severe problems for the cities. Cork City has a population of 120,000, but the urban area is 180,000 and the city-harbour area is 280,000.

The boundaries of town councils rarely coincide with the actual proper size of the town.

Of course, is this just a way of cutting out councillors, now that FF don't have many.

mike65

Oh there will be far more important measures but this one will be the one that takes up the most space and time while being the least important in many respects. All politics is local.

Riskymove

Climber wrote: »

I think sacking 17,000 civil servants is quite explosive!

its more likely to be phasing out than sacking...and its public servants not civil servants

niceirishfella

Good, dispode of these usless councils.

Ronan|Raven

I posted a thread here many moons ago about the excessive amount of town and county councillors we have for the size of population. I was gobsmacked when I saw a list of how many we have. The country could get by with half of them I think (and here is my backing up of that theory ... )

Climber

its more likely to be phasing out than sacking...and its public servants not civil servants

What's the difference between the two?

Riskymove

Climber wrote: »

What's the difference between the two?

you don't replace people who leave (i.e. the post is axed) as opposed to making people unemployed

Riskymove

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

I posted a thread here many moons ago about the excessive amount of town and county councillors we have for the size of population. I was gobsmacked when I saw a list of how many we have. The country could get by with half of them I think (and here is my backing up of that theory ... )

the same is true of our national politicians

Victor

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

I posted a thread here many moons ago about the excessive amount of town and county councillors we have for the size of population. I was gobsmacked when I saw a list of how many we have. The country could get by with half of them I think (and here is my backing up of that theory ... )

Actually, many countries have many more councillors than we have. We have about one councillor per 2,500 people. In France, its one per 200. Obviously at that level they don't have much power.

Joey the lips

Folks local councillors have local knowledge. When you have a problem you go to a councillor before a TD cause a councillor has local knowledge.

a councillor is NOT paid much honestly! if you think abolishing local council will save money your right! But best of luck cause you will spend a fortune on car repairs roadside hedge cutting and general repairs cause if you think that someone in dublin is going to drop down to bog land to care about a ditch.

Yeah right!

By the way! I am a Dub and I am in Meath so yes this will effect me but no I am not a councillor!

markpb

Victor wrote: »

Of course, is this just a way of cutting out councillors, now that FF don't have many.

You cynic! :-D

It would be a big blow to FG after all their victories but 88 local authorities is daft, especially in a country where local politicians have little or no independence anyway.

Joey the lips wrote: »

Folks local councillors have local knowledge. When you have a problem you go to a councillor before a TD cause a councillor has local knowledge.

Most people go straight to their TDs and would never think of going to their councillor - they barely know who they are in most cases. This worked well in the past because the FF TD could talk to the FF councillor but I'm not sure how it would go these days.

a councillor is NOT paid much honestly! if you think abolishing local council will save money your right! But best of luck cause you will spend a fortune on car repairs roadside hedge cutting and general repairs cause if you think that someone in dublin is going to drop down to bog land to care about a ditch.

I think you're being excessive here - the suggestion was to remove town councils and merge some county councils. This has nothing to do with Dublin vs. the rest of the country.

JonathanAnon

.. Actually getting value for taxpayers money.

Biggins

Even the coward Greens won't be too impressed by this one.
The few remaining places they might have power/influence closed down too! Naa, they might just get up off their collective asses if this goes ahead and actually pull out of the Government like they should have done a long time ago!

994

About time, counties were drawn up hundreds of years ago by British civil servants and don't really match up with physical or human geography (e.g. Wicklow split into two halves by mountains). A good few borders should be withdrawn, e.g. bring Celbridge/Maynooth/Leixlip into Dublin.

Aidan1

The only problem with this proposal is that it doesn't go far enough - 22 Local Authorities is still too many. The issues of scale remain, which will hamstring any future devolution of power to a Regional level - any future Cork City/County council will be charged with looking after services for nearly half a million people, but Sligo/Leitrim will be less than a fifth of that.

There's a lot to be said for a more fundamental redrawing of county borders, but I suspect that (a) Board Snip are fully aware that this would bring out the county jersey phenomenon in even more force, and (b) since their primary concern is saving money rather than promoting good government, they don't much care.

Just wait for the 'Leitrim needs its own county council' campain to start.

markpb

Aidan1 wrote: »

Just wait for the 'Leitrim needs its own county council' campain to start.

I wonder if people will actually care enough to do anything. Most people don't know who their councillors are, how to contact them or what they even do. This is Ireland - if you have a problem, you go to your TD.

P. Breathnach

Joey the lips wrote: »

... When you have a problem you go to a councillor before a TD cause a councillor has local knowledge...

Better still, go to the appropriate council official. Or write a letter.

Joey the lips

Just head the news. Its good to see special needs suffering again. Save now pay more later! Very clever folks

Hillel

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Better still, go to the appropriate council official. Or write a letter.

Precisely!

Lockstep

Out of interest; how many people here support the councils ending and are outside Dublin?

Sulmac

What I'd do is abolish county councils and replace them with four "provincial" councils - one for Dublin [the original county, maybe extending to suburban areas in neighbouring counties], one for the rest of Leinster, one for Munster and one for Connacht-Ulster. Have the current counties/cities as electoral areas/constituences for the new provincial assemblies - which would also have an elected governor/mayor/whatever with executive powers. Give them more responsibilities (especially over the likes of education and public transport) than the current ones and revenue-raising powers (such as a share of VAT or the like), as well as certain [real] legislative powers and public initiatives/referenda.

Kind of like Switzerland, but with bigger "cantons." It also works perfectly for the parochial nature of Irish politics and could help regional development.

Fighting Irish

mike65 wrote: »

...the abolishment the City councils outside Dublin, ditch all local town councils and merge 4 counties administrations - Carlow/Kilkenny, Sligo/Leitrim.

Ohh, lets the fun and games begin!

Well anytime i see CC workers in Carlow they're fixing up the flowers on the roundabouts so i think this is disgraceful that they should be sacked

Victor

Fighting Irish wrote: »

Well anytime i see CC workers in Carlow they're fixing up the flowers on the roundabouts so i think this is disgraceful that they should be sacked

Can we afford flowers on roundabouts? I think there are a few more important things to deal with.

Creating one council for Cork (7,507km2, 481,295 population, 200+km end to end) is probably a bit much. If that goes ahead, sure why not merge the 4 midlands counties (6,623km2, 251,664 population, approximately 155 km end to end).

lostexpectation

so will the carlow and kilkenny gaa teams have to merge?

amacachi

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Out of interest; how many people here support the councils ending and are outside Dublin?

I'm one of them. There's Louth County Council, Ardee Town Council, Dundalk Town Council and Drogheda something. Around here phoning the council or getting in contact with council members makes no difference to potholes or anything else, usually when them or one of their mates messes their car up is when things get sorted out.

I agree with what others were saying about redrawing boundaries.

Fighting Irish

Victor wrote: »

Can we afford flowers on roundabouts? I think there are a few more important things to deal with.

Creating one council for Cork (7,507km2, 481,295 population, 200+km end to end) is probably a bit much. If that goes ahead, sure why not merge the 4 midlands counties (6,623km2, 251,664 population, approximately 155 km end to end).

your sarcasm detector is broken

gurramok

Joey the lips wrote: »

Just head the news. Its good to see special needs suffering again. Save now pay more later! Very clever folks

Did you read the report?

If these cuts are implemented, there will still be more special needs assistants than there were in 2006 and this in a time of more immigrants returning home.

amacachi

gurramok wrote: »

Did you read the report?

If these cuts are implemented, there will still be more special needs assistants than there were in 2006 and this in a time of more immigrants returning home.

It's still not enough, nothing will be enough when it comes to education.

FTA69

I'd personally be annoyed with the notion of getting rid of Cork City Council, the cities have a distinct set of priorities and needs that aren't shared elsewhere and as such they should have a council to address that.