I would like to share my time with Deputy Mulvihill.
Adjournment Debate. - Cork County Council Estimates.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I thank you, Sir, for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I am not expecting the Minister to wave a magic wand and suddenly announce that extra funding is available for Cork County Council at this stage. Nevertheless, I hope he will give Deputy Mulvihill and me a sympathetic hearing and inform the Minister for the Environment that Cork County Council is endeavouring to deal with this problem in a reasonable manner.
Following three meetings and debate, discussion and analysis at Cork County Council level, the councillors took what was for them an unprecedented decision to reject the annual council estimate, a clear signal that local authority financing is a shambles. Each year as local authorities throughout the country struggled through their estimates debate, sought extra Government funding and brought their council to the brink of dissolution, Cork County Council without fuss or favour, accepted the recommendation of council management and the Department. The fact that the majority of Cork county councillors, including members of the Labour Party who support the partnership Government, said this must stop should be a clear signal to the Minister, Deputy Smith, that Cork County Council has been pushed over the edge by the Coalition Government.
Everybody in Cork County Council accepts the need for local government reform and to review the financing of local government. As a first step in the right direction and to bring this difficult problem to a successful conclusion, the Minister should meet councillors representative of the county and council management and tease out a formula which will address the crisis.
I hope the Minister of State will transmit the message to the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Smith, that a generous response from his Department will be met by an equally generous response from the entire membership of Cork County Council.
I thank Deputy Bradford for sharing his time with me. This is the first time in over 100 years that the estimates have been rejected by Cork County Council, which is one of the most efficient county councils in the country and has an estimate of over £120 million for 1994. I commend the manager and his staff for their hard work in preparing the estimate.
I ask the Minister of State to accede to the request of the chairman of Cork County Council for an extension of time and to consider meeting an all-party deputation from the council to discuss the matter and find a solution to this serious problem. As I said, this is the first time that Cork County Council has rejected an estimate.
This is also the first time that the manager has introduced an estimate. I commend him for his efforts given that this problem has been threatening for a number of years. Again, I ask the Minister of State to meet a deputation from the council as soon as possible.
(Wexford): I thank Deputy Bradford and his colleague for raising the matter and affording me, in the Minister's absence, an opportunity to respond on this matter. Naturally the Minister would be concerned at the failure of Cork County Council or any local authority to adopt its estimate of expenses and strike a rate for 1994. Where a local authority fails to adopt an estimate, the ultimate sanction provided by law would involve the removal of the councillors from office and their replacement by a commissioner who would discharge the functions of the elected councillors. The Minister would very much regret having to resort to action of this kind and being forced to remove from office public representatives elected by the people of Cork.
The Minister's over-riding concern, as Minister, must be the provision and maintenance of essential local authority services for the people of County Cork and the protection of related employment. It is imperative, therefore, that this statutory estimates process, which underpins the provision of these services, is satisfactorily completed. This is one of the fundamental responsibilities of local authority elected members but if they refuse or fail to discharge the responsibility it then becomes the Minister's duty to make other arrangements in the interests of the whole community.
My Department received a letter yesterday from the Cork county manager, Mr. Noel Dillon, reporting the refusal of the council to fulfil its statutory duty to adopt an estimate and determine a rate for 1994. The manager's letter also conveys a request by the chairman of the council for an extension of time to allow the council to reconsider its decision. The position now is that the Department has today written to the county manager requesting a full report on all the circumstances leading up to the refusal by the council to adopt an estimate and strike a rate. It is necessary to get the full facts of what exactly happened right from the start of the statutory estimates meeting on 16 November right through the adjourned meetings on 29 November and 6 December. When the report from the manager is received, the Minister will consider all aspects of the situation and he will then make his final decision.
I will convey the Deputies request for a meeting with the Minister and ask him to communicate with them as quickly as possible.