Concern over uneven ratio of councillors

VOTERS in Ireland’s least populous county are three times better represented by local politicians than in more populous areas of Cork, according to statistics released yesterday.

Leitrim, with 22 county councillors and 78,000 people, fares far better than the Carrigaline electoral area, which has seven councillors for 77,158 people.

That’s a ratio of one politician to every 11,023 members of the public, compared to Leitrim’s one to 3,545 ratio.

On foot of such discrepancies, calls were made for electoral reform in Co Cork by Cllr Tim Lombard, one of seven local representatives for the Carrigaline area.

The lack of proper representation has also reared its head in the Blarney electoral district, which includes such growing towns as Glanmire, and where four councillors represent 42,316 people or one per 10,579.

The best councillor to population ratio in Cork is in the Bantry area, where five councillors represent a 19,420 people — a ratio of one to 3,884.

The second-best representation is in the Skibbereen area, with seven councillors for 34,025 people — a ratio of one to 4,861.

The Midleton electoral area, which showed the largest population increase, of 16.72%, between the 2002 and 2006 censuses, has six councillor for 54,067 people — a ratio of one to 9,011.

The Bandon area has one councillor per 9,803 people, while in Macroom it’s one per 8,192.

In north Cork they do better: Kanturk — covering Newmarket, Millstreet, Charleville etc — has five councillors dealing with 5,433 people each.

Fermoy, which also covers its hinterland and Mitchelstown, has four councillors, who have an average of 6,883 constituents.

Mallow, a designated growing hub town under the Government’s National Spatial Strategy, has a central and peripheral population of 26,098, and is served by four councillors. That’s a ratio of one per 6,525.

“It is now time for an overhaul of the Local Government system of representation. You cannot have a place the size of Carrigaline and its environs with a population nearly as large as Leitrim, which has just seven councillors.

“We are overworked and the council staff are overworked, as they are in the Blarney electoral area,” Mr Lombard said.

He claimed that substantial development charges generated in the city’s satellite towns were being used to prop up services in north and west Cork because councillors there had greater voting strength.

“We have just three engineers in the Carrigaline area and that’s totally unacceptable considering the population we have.

“There’s a review of the Dáil constituencies ongoing at the moment and when that’s finished it’s vital that we look at county councils,” said the FG representative.

However, Billy Kelleher (FF), the newly appointed Minister for Labour Affairs who lives in a burgeoning Glanmire, advised caution on such reforms.

“We have to take into account the geography. There are large areas in west and north Cork, which are sparsely populated and difficult for politicians to cover,” said Mr Kelleher.