Calls for county funding reform

Cork county is receiving nowhere near its fair share of Government funding according to a new independent report published this week.

The report was carried out by the All Island Research Observatory (AIRO) in Maynooth University and suggests that county Cork’s size and population, in comparison to other local authorities, is not being factored into the allocation of central government funding.

Director of Services, Municipal District Operations and Rural Development Niall Healy brought the report before Cork County Council on Monday.

At the meeting, Mr Healy said there had been concerns for many years regarding the fair allocation of funding to Cork county and the report has now demonstrated a clear disparity.

Mr Healy said the population of Cork county is equivalent to seven per cent of the total state population and is equivalent to the combined population size of six local authorities - Sligo, Roscommon, Monaghan, Carlow, Longford and Leitrim.

He also pointed out that in terms of geographical scale, if West Cork were a county in itself, it would be the eighth largest county in the country.

North Cork and South Cork would be the tenth and 13th biggest counties, respectively.

Mr Healy said Cork county has the most settlements of any local authority in the country with 110, the closest being Donegal with 61 settlements.

He added that Cork county has the highest population who qualify for the Government’s CLÁR rural funding scheme, yet Cork receives the lowest allocation per capita.

The report also showed that West Cork is the largest municipal district in the country.

“It's an expert report that demonstrates that Cork county is being unfairly treated in terms of current funding programmes,” said Mr Healy.

Upon hearing the report, a number of councillors asked that it be sent to central government and to every department that the county is currently receiving funding from.

Cllr for Kanturk-Mallow John Paul O’Shea (Fine Gael) thanked Mr Healy for the delivery of the report and said it had “confirmed what we all thought”.

Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy also praised the report and said the disparity was brought to “extreme light” by the introduction of the Rural Regeneration Fund.

“It's a very unfair playing field. These are the facts. This is what has been happening over the last number of years and it's just not good enough. A person in Cork is just as entitled to state funding as a person in Clare or Donegal or anywhere else,” he said.

Chief Executive Tim Lucey added: “This is a matter that councillors have been raising for the past 18-25 months. This report indicates that there are certain situations arising whereby a review at a national level regarding the criteria associated with some schemes is merited.”

The Department of Rural and Community Development was contacted for response but none was received by time of going to print.