This article is from page 2 of the 2014-04-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
WITH a reduction in council staff of almost 20 per cent in just over five years, councillors fought hard to retain what they could in their own areas at a hotly-contested meeting on Tuesday.
Suggestions from four members that a special workshop should be set up to decide where staff should be employed once the town councils are dissolved on June 1 was met with a firm rejection by the council’s most senior executive.
Sharp exchanges continued between the county manager Tom Coughlan and members, as Mr Coughlan pointed out that staffing issues were not the responsibility of the elected members.
“If that is the kind of system you want then you don’t need a county manager,” he said.
“I have to deal with staff and unions. Staff is not an issue for the council members and that is the law.”
Staff from Kilrush are to be moved to Ennis once the Kilrush and Kilkee Town Councils cease to exist, but 20 members are to remain in the Kilrush office to deal with local issues.
Shannon is to go through a similar process.
Concerned about the Ennistymon office, Cllr Richard Nagle (FF) argued that it would be humanly impossible to continue a service in the North Clare area if more staff were redeployed to Ennis.
Mr Coughlan said that the staffing levels should be sufficient in Ennistymon once some members are moved to Ennis to work in the Environment section. He said he would keep the situation under review.
He said he was already going “against the grain” by keeping two council offices open in the West Clare Area – one in Kilrush and one in Ennistymon.
Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said that this move was acceptable by the Government due to the huge geographical West Clare area, and was not against any policy.
And it was not just the county manager that came under fire at the meeting.
Cllr McCarthy said of Minister Phil Hogan – “This Minister should be shot”.
Minutes later on reflection the Shannon councillor said, “I would like to withdraw the action that should be taken against the minister and use the word sacked.”