Cork’s worth three counties!

County Cork should be divided into and treated as three counties, a Fine Gael councillor this week claimed.

The call was broadly accepted and had support from other political parties during a meeting of Cork County Council this week on the back of the fact that the county is treated the same as some of Ireland’s smaller counties when it comes to some State funding.

Cllr Gerard Murphy’s motion got the backing of other councillors on Monday which asked that council official commission an expert on local government from UCC to prepare a submission and present it to the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Rural and Community Affairs which shows that Cork County Council should be treated as three counties – south, west and north.

He said: “Cork county is losing out…because some departments are now treating the county as one which mean that the largest county is only receiving the same allocation as the smallest.”

Fianna Fáil Cllr Gobnait Moynihan said she commended the idea. “It hits the nail on the head. We seem to be, as a county, missing out,” she said.

Her partymate Seamus McGrath said he fully supported it and said: “Cork doesn’t get its fair share.”

Independent Cllr Ben Dalton O’Sullivan said that UCC has experts that could carry out this report and the sooner it is commissioned, the better.

Fellow Independent Cllr Marcia D'Alton was of the opinion that Cork’s size can be one of its biggest weaknesses when it comes to getting State funding.

Mayor of Cork Cllr Christopher O’Sullivan supported the motion. “Cork county is losing out on important funding which is having an effect on our rural communities. I have no problem leading a delegation to highlight the anomalies to the Government,” he added.

Niall Healy, Director of Services, Municipal District Operations and Rural Development, said: “There is no disputing that the needs of Cork county are not being adequately recognised or supported in the case of national schemes that treat each county equally, having no regard to population size or geographic scale.”

He said there was a “blanket approach” to some schemes including, for example, a grant for playground from the Department of Children which will give a maximum of €24,000 for one site per county, on a 50/50 budget allocation with the local authority.

He added: “The issue has been brought to the attention of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government on a number of occasions, including in recent times. It is important that the matter continues to be pursued relentlessly by the council, including elected members of council through the political representational process.”

Chief Executive Tim Lucey said that he would consider where the best place was to get such a report carried out and warned that it may not be welcomed by his counterparts in other local authorities.