Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleagues in acknowledging the tremendous work that council staff have been carrying out throughout the area yesterday and today in cleaning up and working with people. It is phenomenal work and I wish to acknowledge that. Teastaíonn uaim labhairt faoin rún tábhachtach seo toisc go bhfuil an oiread sin baol ann go gcuirfear isteach ar Bhaile an Chollaigh agus ar cheantair in iarthar Chorcaí nuair atá an teorainn á shíneadh amach.

I believe an arbitrary decision to force the areas around the edge of the city into the city is not the solution to address the challenges facing the city and the county. This is a concern for people around the edges in Ballincollig and Ballinora and Ovens, for example, as well as further west in Ballingeary, over to Coolea and right back throughout west Cork. In these areas people believe that they would not have these resources stripped away from them if the edge of the city and its rate base was not part of the county.

However, it is vital to recognise the status quois not going to stay. Both sides need to sit down and come to an agreement because we are going nowhere at present. This is undermining both city and county and the current hiatus is a threat to Cork. The sooner the Minister of State gets people from city and county working towards a solution, the better. The implementation group is clearly ignoring the need for consensus. Although the city council and departmental officials seems to be treating the Mackinnon report as the only show in town, the county council has acknowledged there will be a boundary change and has put forward its own proposal. To be fair, there is widespread consensus throughout the county that there should be some change. The Minister of State needs to look more closely at the county council's proposed changes.

There should be public consultation too. People believe strongly that their views need to be taken into consideration and there is great concern at the lack of consultation.

I understand that the Cabinet visited Cork only last week. It was a major missed opportunity not to avail of the occasion to meet people locally from right around those areas and to hear first-hand their concerns. I will leave it to my colleagues now. There needs to be discussion.

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