Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan has said that Cork City Council and other local authorities are suffering “death by a thousand cuts” from swingeing funding cuts and a public service jobs embargo that is strangling the council’s ability to respond to citizens’ needs.
Cllr. Tynan spoke as he voted against a council budget which is based on an income drop of almost €50 million over the 2008 figure. He said it was “woefully inadequate” to meet the demand for vital services such as housing, housing maintenance, road and street repairs and libraries.
“Cork City Council is a walking corpse” said Tynan. “It has lost almost 400 key workers in the last four years and housing maintenance has been particularly badly hit. The council now employs just two plumbers to maintain over 8,000 local authority houses. House building is now practically non-existent and the waiting list for housing is continuing to grow.
“The same thing is happening in the library service. In my own area of Mayfield, we have seen the closure of the local library on Thursdays while a late evening on Wednesday is gone. In the city centre, the well-used and respected Reference Section of the City Library is now down to two days a week.”
Tynan said: “These cuts are across the board. One can only form the opinion that the State wants to reduce local government to a regulator of private services.”
Cork North West Workers’ Party representative James Coughlan has said he is not surprised that the level of social deprivation on the northside of Cork city is directly related to health issues and, in particular, a high incidence of cancer. Responding to the recent Cork City Profile 2014 report, Mr Coughlan said:
“More than a decade ago, the Workers’ Party published A Tale of Two Cities which showed the vast differences in wealth, jobs, educational access and social facilities between different parts of Cork City, in particular the lopsided development of the city which left the northside deeply disadvantaged and almost all key facilities and employment opportunities on the southside. Now we can add general health and the outcomes of ill health into that mix.”
Mr. Coughlan said that the state must provide major funds to and end the disadvantage of the northside. That must mean real jobs, proper educational facilities, healthcare and most of all a change of attitude at the heart of local and national government.
