‘Like the Titanic’ - Limerick councillors worried by ‘money just being wasted’

A NUMBER of Limerick councillors have expressed their grievances over Limerick City and County Council’s hiring practices.

The issue was raised by Fine Gael councillor Stephen Keary at the November meeting of the Adare-Rathkeale Municipal District.

Following a presentation regarding the Rathkeale Town Centre Plan, Cllr Keary took issue with the amount of money being spent by the council on hiring consultants.

He pointed out that the council currently employs 21 architects and argued that they should be asked to help in the development of the plan, rather than outside consultants.

Cllr Keary said that the council now employs some 1,500 staff, compared to 1,200 a number of years ago.

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He asked what the extra 300 staff members were doing and said that there are people working for the council whose faces he has “never seen before”.

Cllr Keary added that the Adare-Rathkeale councillors have a “major problem” with the budget they will be asked to adopt on Friday, November 21.

He suggested that work related to the Rathkeale Town Centre Plan should be conducted in house in order to save money.

These sentiments were echoed by his party colleague, Cllr Adam Teskey, who accused the council of the "complete gross mis-expenditure of taxpayers’ money”.

He said that councillors were being faced by “such a bureaucracy of red tape” due to the amount of consultants being hired by the local authority.

Cllr Teskey said that “money is just being wasted” and questioned whether the council is looking to deflect blame to these consultants.

Independent Ireland councillor John O’Donoghue agreed with Cllr Keary, but said that there was “no finger pointing here”.

He said that the Rathkeale Town Centre Plan, which has received €340,000 in funding, must be able to stand up to public scrutiny.

Later in the meeting, several councillors also took issue with how the council replaces staff who are leaving their current position.

Cllr Keary said that there “a lot of people” working for the council who will soon be retiring without anyone to replace them.

He suggested that road engineers who are leaving should be shadowed by their replacement for six months.

He added that the current setup was a “ridiculous system” where people are “really lost” after starting their new jobs.

Meanwhile, Cllr Teskey said his party colleague had “hit the nail on the head” when it came to the issue. He said the council has “lost some fine people” over the last few months and that it has caused a lot of disruption.

He also took issue with members of council management constantly changing roles.

In conclusion, Cllr Keary said the local authority was “like the Titanic”, with Cllr Teskey adding: “We’ll all be going down”.