Councils merger hailed as a great success
Tipperary’s former North Riding and South Riding councils became one body just over a year ago.
Their amalgamation had been in line with city and county councils being united in Limerick and Waterford.
The Institute of Public Administration conducted a report into the first-ever blending of two ‘county councils’. It said while a full assessment will not be possible for a number of years, it had, “in terms of the objectives set by the government, been effective to date”.
By February, eight months after the administration was established, over €3m had been saved.
The report was released as the Smiddy Review Group continues to look at local government structures in Cork, which boasts both a City Hall and County Hall.
The review group is considering the option of a boundary extension for Cork City Council or a possible merger with Cork County Council.
Joanna O’Riordan, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Public Administration said, said that prior to the Tipperary merger, there were 614 council staff working in South Riding and 478 in North Riding.
So far, as staff had been reassured, there had been no compulsory redundancies or a relocation of workers to either Clonmel or Nenagh, the respective headquarters of the former councils.
As a compromise, councillors meet on alternative months in the main offices.
Staff levels are currently around 1,000. A reduction was achieved through retirements, without replacements. Ms O’Riordan acknowledged some work continues to ensure staff have adequate workloads and, at some stage, may involve interdepartmental transfers.
“So far so good, but there’s still work to be done. For instance, some staff are saying they are swamped with work while others admit to having nothing to do,” she said.
However, the report states: “It is inevitable given the scale of the process and the number of people involved that there are challenges, unforeseen issues, and for staff concerns in areas including communications, workforce planning, and career prospects.
“One of the main motivations behind this research was to consult with staff, explore with them issues of concern, and report back to management in respect of these issues.”
The implementation plan estimated that once revised staffing levels were reached, gross savings of €6.1m a year would be achieved over an extended period.
It said these would arise primarily from reduced payroll costs from retirements, amounting to €4.8m.
In fact, savings have occurred at a faster rate than anticipated. The costs of the merger included one-off expenditure on IT harmonisation, office improvements, and corporate branding amounting to €1.7m, which was somewhat lower than expected.
Ms O’Riordan said she “had been hugely impressed” by the hard work put in by staff, who had ensured that the merger happened on schedule and without disruption to services for the 158,754 people who live in the county.
She said, as a larger local authority, will have more clout, promoting economic, social, community, and enterprise developments.
