Alf Smiddy: Bite bullet on merger

That’s according to Alf Smiddy, the former chairman of the Cork Local Government Review committee, who said a merger was still the best option for the city and county.

Mr Smiddy oversaw a report last year that recommended a complete merger of Cork City Council and Cork County Council, but the issue blew up into a political storm as City Hall threatened legal action over the perceived downgrading of its status. The Smiddy Report was shelved last year and now a new committee has been appointed this week by Minister Simon Coveney to review the issue again.

While he welcomed the fact that the issue was being picked up again, MrSmiddy said that his report had already done the work needed and should be implemented. “I put a lot of work into that, as did the other members of the committee, and we produced a fine report. I worked on it night and day for nine months,” he said.

“They need to get over the political logjam and the politicking that has gone on. They need to bite the bullet and get on with it,” he said.

Mr Smiddy said a merger is still the best option.

“We need to face up to the reality that this is unsustainable. It’s absolutely ludicrous to have two councils located two miles away from each other — one looking after the city and one looking after the county,” he said.

Last year, two of the committee’s five members dissented from the Smiddy Report and produced a minority report recommending an expansion of the city rather than a total merger.

Simon Coveney, Minister for Local Government, inherited the issue earlier this year and said that he wanted to see “fresh thinking” on the local authority question.

He has been clear in the months that followed that he is open to other options than a merger, and the new group has been tasked with considering them.

The new advisory group will be chaired by Jim Mackinnon, the former chief planner of the Scottish government, and will include John O’Connor, former chairman of An Bórd Pleanála, and current chairman of Eirgrid, Gillian Keating, former president and board member of Cork Chamber, and Paul Martin, chief executive and director of administration at Wandsworth Council, London.