Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The boundary alterations between Cork City Council and Cork County Council have the potential to cause major financial strain for Cork County Council. Report after report was presented to the public in the past few years to try to sell this plan. When others and I read the reports more closely, it was obvious that the plan had the potential to have catastrophic consequences for west Cork and the county generally. I immediately called on my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group to table a motion in the Dáil against implementation of the plan. In spite of receiving support from Deputies from counties Kerry, Tipperary, Clare, Galway and Dublin, I received no support from any Dáil Deputy from Cork. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Independent Alliance Deputies all voted down the motion as party leaders and deputy leaders cracked the Whip, forcing many to turn their backs on their own constituency in return for a promised compensation package that we were told would be put in place for the county for ten years. At a meeting held in the council chambers on 13 September, to which all Oireachtas Members were invited, we discovered that a new wording was being proposed for the package. It looks like it will not be for ten years but will instead be reviewed sometime in the first three. It could happen in the first two months. By law the city council will not be compelled to pay compensation which may well lead to a legal suit between the two local authorities in the not-so-distant future, which would have further serious consequences. In their thousands, the people of Ballincollig signed petitions about not being forced inside the city boundaries. It also looks like the people of Blarney and Tower will be forced inside the city boundaries against their will. The people of west Cork where I have seen seven businesses close in the past few weeks are completely against the plan. However, democracy has been kicked out the window in order to force the plan down people's throats. The county council voted unanimously against this happening, but the extension of the city boundaries is being railroaded through, notwithstanding the fact that every honest politician in Cork knows how rural communities will see a major loss of commercial rates, development charges and property tax revenue.

At a special meeting of Cork County Council for all Oireachtas Members on 13 September the newly worded proposals were rejected by those Members present as shockingly bad, with serious consequences for the whole county. In the two meetings held by Cork County Council to advise Members of the Oireachtas of the consequences for the county, the non-attendance of the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Coveney, and the leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Micheál Martin, sent a clear message to me and the councillors present that they ignored their councillors on the ground and favoured a boundaries extension which would throw the whole county to the wolves. Opposition to our motion 12 months ago indicated that some senior party members had forced the Whip on their Deputies to vote against the motion. In other words, they forced their own Deputies to vote against their own constituency, which was nothing short of shameful, but it is not too late. I ask the Taoiseach to intervene personally where others have not and sideline the boundaries extension until all potential disasters have been explored. They have been overlooked to date. I ask him to follow in the steps of my fellow west Corkman, General Michael Collins, and govern for the country, rural and urban. He must not allow politicians who are not acting in the interests of all the people to win out.

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