Facing the snip! Local government in Offaly under threat

The local government system in Offaly could be entirely dismantled if the recommendations of An Bord Snip Nua published yesterday are fully implemented. The town councils of Tullamore, Birr and Edenderry in particular are recommended for abolition along with all town councils in the country. And if the board gets its way, calling for a reduction of 12 county councils, Offaly County Council could even be abolished, and its functions possibly merged with Laois County Council, to form a single council. The wide-ranging report which outlined potential savings of over 5bn has also placed question marks over Offaly County Enterprise Board, West Offaly Partnership, OAK Partnership, Shannon Development, and Offaly LEADER among other organisations. In its report, the group recommended that there should be a move to a 'single tier' of local government through the abolition regional authorities and town councils. It proposes a reduction in the 34 Local Authorities to 22. That could mean a possible merger of Offaly and Laois County Councils, as they have the 9th and 8th lowest county populations respectively according to the 2006 census. Fine Gael Cllr Tommy McKeigue, who is chairman of Tullamore Town Council said he wasn"t surprised that the group recommended a cut in town councils. 'People never miss the well until the water runs dry, but if they government are not going to fund the councils, there"s little point in keeping going. The only revenue Tullamore Town Council is receiving at the moment is paid parking,' said Cllr McKeigue. He said that the size of each town should be taken into consideration and that issues such as electing town mayors should also be investigated. 'In the smaller counties there are too many councils and the councils have lost all their services, they"re not in charge of water or sewerage and there"s a proposal to take away housing. Then there are some, like Edenderry, that have no power and no rates,' he said. 'Unless they are properly funded there"s no point in having them.' He said that town councils were completely strapped for cash at the moment because of the drop in development levies. He said that the only revenue Tullamore Town Council was receiving this year was business rates and paid parking fees. He said that if things continued as they were, services to local people would deteriorate. 'If the government does get rid of the town councils, they need to have a proper plan in place. There still needs to be a local service for local people,' he added. He admitted that the merging of some county councils was being mooted but he wouldn"t like to see that happening, as it would be retrograde. 'At a time of crises, a time of change will come. During a financial crises, everything is on the table,' he added. He said even if the government decided to get rid of town councils, it probably would not happen until the current councils had run their term. The huge cost-cutting plan comes from the board, officially titled the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes after six months of identifying ways to save taxpayers" money. The report was published yesterday (Thursday) following a five-hour cabinet meeting on Wednesday and contains a myriad of cuts across the state and semi-state bodies and also the departments, most significantly health and education.