Councils urged to share services

Cork city and county councils should explore opportunities for joint staffing through sharing services, according to a major government-ordered review on staffing levels.

The delivery of IT and library services are among areas expected to be considered before a final list is prepared by the end of June.

And Cork’s city manager should also “seek to achieve an enhanced dialogue” with commercial rate-payers and their representative bodies.

These are among recommendations in an independent review of staffing levels in Cork City Council, just published by Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

The review follows on from the recommendation contained in the Local Government Efficiency Review Group’s Report, published in July 2010, that the staffing complement and number of senior managers in the council should be independently reviewed.

A group chaired by Pat McLoughlin, the CEO of the Irish Payment Services Organisation, included Alf Smiddy, chairman of Granite Consulting, Cork; Dr Aodh Quinlivan from UCC’s Department of Government; Anne O’Keeffe, a former director of the office of Local Authority Management, along with Des Dowling, from the Department of the Environment. They all agreed to do the work for free.

They asked the city council to prepare a report on how it proposed to reduce its staff numbers.

The council drafted a “workforce plan” which set out to achieve, from Jan 1, 2010, a reduction in staffing figures of just over 13%, and a reduction of just over 36% in the numbers of directors of service.

By early last year, while the review work was continuing, retirements and the non-filling of posts brought the council’s staff numbers down to just over 1,300 — a reduction of 219 or 14% since early 2009.

Retirements at senior manager level, and a restructuring of directorates, brought about a 27% reduction in the council’s senior management team.

Mr McLoughlin’s group assessed the council’s plan and presented its recommendations to the environment minister, who published the report on Friday.

The group issued several recommendations and urged city manager Tim Lucey to take a “strong approach” to implementing the workforce plan.

The group said that before seeking sanction to make critical replacements or to fill specialist posts, the council should be able to demonstrate that all options for reassignment of staff or reorganisation of work have been exhausted first.

“In this regard, it is important that the potential for inter-changeability of staff at a common level is examined thoroughly,” the report said.

Voluntary retirement arrangements should be applied where appropriate, it said. The group also recommended a list of joint activities, including shared services, should be agreed by the city council and Cork County Council, and be approved by the department, by the end of June.