Cork council to challenge merger proposal

Cork City Council is poised to become the first local authority to mount a legal challenge to the Government after councillors agreed in principle to challenge the proposal to merge Cork city and county councils.

All 31 members of the council were expected to support a motion by Lord Mayor Chris O'Leary, due to be tabled at a meeting scheduled for a minute past midnight last night, directing Cork City Council chief executive Ann Doherty to initiate a legal action against the Government.

The motion, brought under Section 140 of the Local Government Act 2001, was due to be proposed by Mr O'Leary, a Sinn Féin councillor, and to be jointly seconded by the Fianna Fáil whip, Cllr Terry Shannon, and the Fine Gael leader on the council, Cllr John Buttimer.

The decision to mount a legal challenge followed a meeting held in committee earlier in the evening. At the meeting, Ms Doherty outlined legal advice she obtained regarding the council taking legal action against the merger proposal, which was made in a report on local government reform in Cork.

Reform group

The Cork Local Government Reform Group was established in January by Minister for the Environment

Alan Kelly

to examine local government reform in Cork city and county. Mr

Kelly

welcomed the proposal for a single authority when the group published its report on September 8th.

The report recommended by three votes to two that Cork City Council and Cork County Council be merged into a single authority with the city becoming part of a metropolitan Cork division within the greater authority covering both city and county.

While the briefing by Ms Doherty was held in committee, it’s understood the legal challenge by Cork City Council will focus on two aspects of the merger proposal: the review process and Government policy on local government.

It's understood the challenge will involve seeking a judicial review of the review process chaired by former Beamish & Crawford managing director Alf Smiddy, with lawyers for the council likely to argue the process failed to include an appeal facility or opportunity for rebuttal by those opposed.

Constitutionality

The second aspect of the legal challenge is expected to focus on the constitutionality of the process whereby local authorities, including town councils and local authorities in

Limerick

,

Tipperary

and

Waterford

, as well as Cork and

Galway

, faced abolition or merger.

According to informed sources, central to the judicial review of the Cork review process will be an examination of how it was conducted and what discussions it entailed. Mr O’Leary has lodged a Freedom of Information (FoI) request in relation to the entire process.

It is understood his request seeks to access correspondence between relevant state officials and personnel in the review group. Speaking before the midnight meeting, Mr O’Leary said he didn’t want to discuss the detail of the legal briefing, but he was satisfied the council was entitled to pursue a Section 140 motion.

He said the council was obliged to give seven days’ notice of moving a Section 140 motion and had done so on September 14th. Therefore it could not hold a meeting before today, and hence the timing of one minute past midnight last night.