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Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Bord Snip Eile plans to merge county councils
BY MARIAN HARRISON
MAYO and Roscommon county councils may be merged in a bid to save millions of euro.
A report on local government in Ireland – dubbed An Bord Snip Eile – has recommended that senior and middle management in local authorities be significantly reduced. Ten of the country’s 34 county managers would be cut with one boss in charge of Mayo and Roscommom.
Recently-appointed manager in Mayo, Peter Hynes, says the proposal is “about the good of the county and ensuring that it is managed properly; it’s not about individuals”.
However, he admits that it is difficult to see where half a billion euro could be taken out of the local authority sector every year without a considerable impact on services.
With Mayo having no history of being coupled with another local authority, the efficiency review group were walking into “unchartered waters”, he said.
Mr Hynes advised the implementation group, which is expected to be set up in the coming weeks, to look carefully at the practicalities of turning Mayo and Roscommon into one administrative area.
“There will be challenges as the two counties have independent needs and priorities and they will have to be balanced where they don’t align and there’s the challenge of time.”
Deputy John O’Mahony, who resides in Ballaghaderreen on the Mayo/Roscommon border, strongly opposes the move.
“While I agree that savings need to be made,Mayo has the highest percentage of secondary roads in the whole country and the county needs a single authority.”
The HSE has become a “huge monster” in recent years and services have only disimproved, said Deputy O’Mahony.
Westport’s Peter Flynn was the only Mayo councillor to respond to a request from the review group for submissions. He thinks the amalgamation of local authorities is a “good idea”.
“Big multinational companies with tens of thousands of employees and offices all over the world merge all the time.
“There are approximately 2,000 employees between both councils and the infrastructural deficiencies in both counties are similar. They have the same problems with water, roads, broadband and electricity networks.”
The review body has also recommended the reduction in directors of service from 240 to 190 and the number of senior and middle managers by at least 15 per cent.
Cllr Flynn’s only criticism of the report is that it doesn’t go far enough. He’s adamant all western counties, from Donegal to Clare, should be brought together.
“Take the situation with road salt, which we all became familiar with over the winter, for example. Now different counties are tendering against each other for a salt supply. It’s common sense that one authority should buy the salt and distribute it from there; we’re paying over the odds for it now.”
The efficiency review group says savings and revenue-raising measures could yield as much as €511 million every year.
Cllr Flynn says the Government has no choice but to implement the changes.
“They have to find savings somewhere and local authorities and the HSE are the obvious choices,” said Cllr Flynn, adding that the number of councillors would also have to be reduced.
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