County Mayor: Meeting with Taoiseach successful
The Taoiseach has finally “bought” an independent report highlighting the shortfalls in national government funding schemes for Cork County Council which he had previously appeared to dismiss in the Dáil.
That’s according to the Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Gillian Coughlan who told elected members on Monday that a recent meeting with An Taoiseach Micheál Martin had been very successful.
In June, during an exchange with Cork South-West TD Michael Collins, the Taoiseach remarked that he “didn’t buy” the report and claimed that “people could commission reports to get the outcome they want”.
His remarks drew much criticism among elected members of Cork County Council who this week asked for full disclosure regarding a recent meeting between the Fianna Fáil mayor, Chief Executive Tim Lucey and a number of directors of services.
The independent report was carried out by the All Island Research Observatory (AIRO) in Maynooth University on the request of Cork County Council.
The report clearly outlined a number of areas in which Cork county was not receiving its fair share of government finding in respect to its size and population.
Speaking at County Hall on Monday, Cllr Ben D'Alton O'Sullivan said he fears the “explosive” report will be sent to government departments where it will be forgotten about and “die away slowly”.
Cllr O’Sullivan said: “We knew this for a long time but now it has been independently confirmed. This report shows that Cork county is not getting a fair deal by any means on national budgets.
“We're not asking for a penny extra. We are asking for the money we rightfully deserve and God knows the taxpayers of Cork county are paying enough in local property tax, income tax and all other taxes.”
Cllr O’Sullivan highlighted that Cork has the fourth lowest LEADER programme funding in the country and has only received a fifth of what county Claire has received in rural regeneration funding.
He also pointed out that Cork county has the lowest CLÁR allocation of all local authorities in Ireland, a funding scheme that delivers upgrades to playgrounds, community centres and community facilities.
Turning to funding for roads, Cllr O’Sullivan claimed it will take 52 years under current funding to bring all roads in the county up to standard at a cost of €750 million.
In her response, the Mayor Cllr Gillian Coughlan said the Taoiseach had taken the report “absolutely and wholeheartedly” on board.
“It is such a valuable document because it tabulates statistically the shortfalls in funding to Cork County Council. It was discussed for a whole hour and drilled into in real detail,” she said.
The Mayor added that the Taoiseach had bought the report and that Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath had bought it too.
Chief Executive Tim Lucey said he was “absolutely satisfied” that the Government has the report and understands exactly the challenges face by Cork County Council.
“Not long after we published the report to the Government, we were informed by the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform that it is being assessed by the economic division of his department.
“That department has been in contact with some of our senior staff here to understand the report in more detail. We now await hearing further from Government on it,” he concluded.