130 staff of axed town councils will not be laid off

Cork County Council will not make any of the 130 staff employed by town councils redundant when it takes over their running on June 1.

The announcement was made by acting county manager Declan Daly ahead of the abolishment of the nine town councils in the county.

It will come as good news to the staff who work for the councils in Youghal, Midleton, Cobh, Fermoy, Mallow, Macroom, Kinsale, Clonakilty and Skibbereen.

There are 50 administrative staff and 80 outdoor staff in the town councils and Mr Daly said that discussions were ongoing with them to make the transition as seamless as possible.

He said work would be sent out to people on an interim basis from council headquarters in County Hall.

“We want to minimise disruption and to be as accommodating as we can. We hope to have these discussions finalised in the next few weeks,” the acting county manager said.

Ted Lucey, who has served as a town councillor in Macroom for the past 15 years, said he welcomed the news.

Final decisions haven’t been made about what will happen to all town council offices, although some of them will be used as the administrative headquarters for the soon-to-be-created municipal districts in the county. Mr Lucey said he’d been told that one of these hubs would be Macroom Town Hall, which he also welcomed. It will serve the needs of people living in the Blarney/Macroom municipal district.

“It’s fantastic news that there will be no redundancies amongst town council staff. It is vital that they are kept on because they have important local knowledge. It’s also vital that we keep our roads staff (outdoor staff) in the area because we have limited enough resources as it is to maintain the roads,” Cllr Lucey said.

He also welcomed news that office staff will be kept on “as they play a vital role”.

However, it is unclear if some office staff will eventually be centralised to duties in County Hall.