Cork County Councillors to meet with CEO to discuss staffing levels

THE CEO of Cork County Council Tim Lucey has agreed to meet with councillors early next year to try to resolve the ongoing situation with regard to outdoor staff numbers in the council.

Budget 23 was approved at last Monday’s full council meeting following a protracted debate. One of the conditions councillors extracted from Mr Lucey to approve next year’s budget was a commitment from the executive to look at the issue of outdoor staff numbers across the eight municipal districts.

Chief executive of Cork County Council Tim Lucey said he will meet with councillors in the new year to resolve the issue.

“I can’t say I can recruit beyond what is provided in the budget. I am happy to sit down with council in the new year and say this is where we are at. We won’t solve the outdoor staff in here. I am not in a position to give a commitment to increasing beyond the 370 that we have provided for in our Workforce Plan,” he said.

Mr Lucey said they will be ‘recruiting’ an extra 10 outdoor staff members to reach the target of 370 outdoor staff members as agreed in the plan. We have a Workforce Plan to get to 370 and we will be recruiting an extra ten staff to get to that. We are working towards that. The increase in population and increase in economic activity is putting pressure there is no doubt about that.

“We currently have somewhere in the order of 15 seasonal staff that we utilise purely from a roads point of view.

“We will look to see if this should be increased in the new year, particularly in areas where there is increased tourism activities. I am prepared to look at that and be positive in relation to that in 2023. We will work on that basis,” he added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus McGrath welcomed Mr Lucey’s comments.

“I believe there is a genuine commitment to look at this in the new year. We want a clear commitment in terms of the numbers of outdoor staff that will be achieved in 2023 as I understand we are not at the level we should be at in terms of our outdoor staffing numbers.

“We want them there in greater numbers providing key services and taking the burden off volunteers.”