Lack of council staff ‘crippling’ service delivery

Maintaining roads and water supplies in Co Cork is becoming increasingly difficult because Cork County Council hasn’t got enough personnel to keep pace with the workload.

That’s the claim from a number of councillors who are becoming increasingly frustrated by a Government embargo on recruiting local authority staff.

Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe said aging water mains were leading to increased breaks in many places.

He cited incidents in the north Cork villages of Ballyhooly and Kildorrery and added that in Kilworth “for the past month the water was off nearly every second day”.

“Throughout north Cork there aren’t enough staff available to repair water supplies,” he said.

He added that extra staff should be deployed in water services to meet demand until Irish Water officially takes over the country’s supply system next Jan 1.

Acting county manager Declan Daly said the council had lost 25% of its staff since 2007. He said that during the last four years the local authority had undertaken a review of its roads and water services in order to use the resources at its disposal to the best of its ability, but he added, “clearly we could do with additional staff”.

Cllr Danny Crowley said the embargo was having a crippling effect on service delivery.

“On Bere Island, which has a population of 200 people, we used to have two outdoor staff looking after the place. When they retired they were not replaced.

“There should be an equality of service around the county,” he said, adding that he was also very concerned that verges and hedgerows were not being cut in rural areas and this was presenting a danger to traffic and pedestrians.

He raised the issue at a recent meeting of the Cork County Joint Policing Committee, where he was told that if gardaí were concerned about excessive growth causing safety issues in certain areas, the council would deal with the matter.

Council officials added that landowners had a responsibility to ensure they trimmed back growth so it didn’t interfere with roads.

Mr Crowley said it was also inequitable that huge amounts of money were spent cleaning verges on motorways, but little or nothing on minor roads.

He said this was dangerous especially as people were adopting healthier lifestyles by cycling and walking more.

Mr Daly said the council is responsible for 12,000km of road and simply couldn’t cut the verges on them all.