Local government and boundaries

Sir, – The statutory committee appointed to examine local government arrangements in Galway has recommended against a merger of the city council and county council and, instead, calls for a boundary extension.

The report has been with Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly for two months, and the silence from the Custom House in Dublin has been deafening.

The contrast with the Cork statutory committee is striking. In Cork, the committee was split, with three members writing a majority report favouring a merger and two members writing a minority report recommending a boundary extension.

Despite the fact that the Cork group was unable to produce an agreed recommendation, the Minister rushed to Leeside to endorse the majority report. It wasn’t that he rejected the minority report — he acted as if it simply did not exist. Yet, with regard to Galway, there has been no rush and no ministerial press conference. Is it because the Galway report does not give the recommendation that the Minister and the Custom House wanted?

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Congratulations to the Galway group for its diligent approach and for acknowledging that the weight of international evidence suggests that local authority mergers do not result in costs savings or efficiencies.

In addition, the research tells us people become detached from large-scale “super authorities”, which lead to, among other things, a big fall-off in participation and voting turnout levels. – Yours, etc,

Dr AODH QUINLIVAN,

Centre for Local

and Regional Governance,

Department of Government,

University College Cork.