John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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136. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if his Department has conducted an analysis of the cost effectiveness of the 2014 amalgamation of Waterford city and county councils, and the parallel abolition of Dungarvan and Tramore town councils; and if so, the findings which were arrived at. [35332/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The decision to replace town authorities with a new model of municipal governance under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 was designed primarily to strengthen local government within counties and to address widely acknowledged and long-standing weaknesses and anomalies in the previous system, rather than as a cost saving exercise. However, the 2012 Action Programme for Effective Local Government, Putting People First indicated that it would also be reasonable to anticipate that overall savings to local authorities in the range €15 to €20 million per annum relative to 2010 expenditure figures would be achievable from sub-county reorganisation when the reformed structures, including the establishment of municipal districts, had bedded down.

The Waterford Reorganisation Implementation Group, which oversaw planning for the merger of Waterford City Council and Waterford County Council identified long term payroll savings of some €4,350,000 per annum which it anticipated would accrue through the non-replacement of staff and councillors. In addition, a review by Grant Thornton, financial consultants, identified a further €755,000 per annum of specific savings in non-payroll expenditure, plus further potential savings of up to €272,000 per annum. This brings to almost €5.4m the estimated enduring annual savings. However, other savings which have not been captured in these exercises include the increased efficiencies brought about by more productive uses of staff which had previously been engaged in corporate type roles arising purely from the existence of separate local authorities.