Review group split over merger of councils

A split has emerged in the Cork local government review group with two of its five members poised to vigorously oppose a recommendation to merge the two local authorities.

The Cork Local Government Review Group, which met this week to finalise its report for Environment Minister Alan Kelly is, as had been widely anticipated, expected to recommend within weeks the merger of Cork city and county councils.

But it has emerged two members of the group — UCC lecturer in government, Dr Theresa Reidy, and Professor of History, Dermot Keogh — will oppose the merger option favoured by Tom Curran, John Lucey SC and review group chair Alf Smiddy.

Dr Reidy and Prof Keogh were not available for comment last night. But the Irish Examiner established they have prepared a detailed “minority report” opposing the merger.

Sources close to the process described their document as a “lengthy and extremely robust dissenting report”.

The source said their report also advocates strongly for the first extension of the city boundary in 50 years.

Review group chairman Alf Smiddy said they have been meeting on an almost weekly basis since January and that the review is not yet complete.

“But when it is, it will be a highly professional, comprehensive and well considered report, with firm recommendations that will serve the best interests of Cork,” he said. “The report with recommendations will then be submitted to the minister as per the terms of reference of the group.”

Dr Aodh Quinlivan, a lecturer in politics at UCC’s Department of Government and an expert in local government who has consistently argued for a city boundary extension, said a merger would be a disaster for the city and county.

In the final article of a series on the review process for the Evening Echo, Dr Quinlivan said he believes senior civil servants in the Department of the Environment are driving the merger agenda because they favour centralised control.

But he said he fears a merger will push the region into a “centralising vortex”.

“The review process in Cork has been skewed towards an amalgamation from the start,” he said.

Sinn Féin county councillor Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said a merger would be a “serious mistake” for local government in Cork city and county. “For Cork City to thrive, it needs its own, autonomous, independent and strong local government, and Cork City has a history of local government stretching back centuries,” he said.