Cork City Abú!

“If you must hold private conversations while the councillor is trying to speak, please take them outside.” I felt like I was back in school. The Council Chambers was full of local representatives, giggling and Googling and generally not paying attention until it got entertaining enough, and presiding over the unruly bunch, in lieu of a classroom monitor, was the Lord Mayor.
I arrived during preliminary discussions of special matters raised, where there was a heated exchange taking place regarding the scheduling of extra meetings to consider submissions on the Draft Development Plan and to meet with representatives of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. The general timbre, from those taking part, was that they worked hard enough as councillors and gave up enough of their time without having more meetings being scheduled on an ad hoc basis. Just so you know how often they are expected to attend meetings on a normal basis, the meetings of Cork City Council are held on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 5.30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, City Hall, Cork. And in case there is nothing on of a Monday evening on TV, the public and the press are admitted to these meetings to witness events as they unfold.
Once the furore surrounding the extra scheduling was calmed and placatory gestures offered (to the effect that, although the extra meetings would stand, in future consultations would be made, of course, of course), the meeting proper got underway.

But you wouldn’t have known it unless you were told.

One of the more lively ‘debates’, which interestingly I cannot find in the recorded minutes, concerned the regeneration projects being undertaken in the city. In particular, attention was brought to bear on two areas: Sprigg’s Road and Boyce’s Street. It was claimed by Councillor Mick Barry of the Socialist Party that promised monies (to the tune of several million) were not forthcoming and that time was rapidly ticking on. He became quite animated. But not as animated as the rest of those paying attention who denied most hotly that monies were being held up either by themselves or by the present government and, quite to the contrary, the monies were simply whizzing along the bureaucratic by-ways. It became quite the hot potato. Indeed, Councillor Kenneth O’Flynn, one of his opposers, who as rule were claiming that Cllr. Barry merely wished to hear the sound of his own voice, suggested that we “find whichever village was missing its idiot and return Cllr. Barry to it”. Parliamentary language indeed. I am reminded of that old chestnut; when you lose your temper, you lose the argument. Which would of course be true, if this were the report of an argument or even a debate, as you would hope. However, it appeared to be simply a talking-shop, where each councillor in turn (of those, again, who were paying attention) could stand up and list out their achievements, such as they were. For example, one councillor stopped browsing the web long enough to point out to one of his more technologically-challenged partners that information on the Government’s Home Choice Loan Scheme was available on-line.

The Home Choice Loan Scheme was also subject discussion, though does not appear in the recorded minutes. For those of you not in the know, this is a scheme which was first broadcast as part of the Budget 2008 Dáil Speech by our Finance Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan. In it, he stated that the government was planning on extending “the existing local authority mortgage scheme by increasing the maximum loan available to borrowers. This extension will assist purchasers who wish to become homeowners but who are, at this time, unable to obtain loan finance.” In other words, the government was letting us know that it was entering the sub-prime lenders market. He informed us that the funding would be provided by “the Housing Finance Agency and it will be operated by a small number of local authorities acting on a regional basis.”

On a side note, it is interesting to watch the different ways in which the authorities are trying to dig themselves and their countrymen out of this financial crisis. In the UK, the government have put into place the framework by which they can guarantee up to 80% of loans to small businesses as part of a multi-billion pound package of measures to stimulate the economy. The idea is to provide support to both large and small companies in an aim to maintain and increase diversity in the economy and thereby avoid the pitfalls inherent in placing your fiscal future in an economy dependant on one or two main industries. Now, this is not to say that there are not teething problems, such as a long time-delay between application and financing, off-putting levels of paperwork involved and the fact it is felt in some quarters of the business world that some businesses should be allowed to fail as to support them would be to take invaluable support from going concerns. However, it is a good step in a good direction. Simply put, it appears to be a case of diversify and survive.
Back in Ireland, we have the Home Choice Loan. This loan is a mortgage provided through a number of local authorities for First Time Buyers who cannot get sufficient finance from a bank or building society and will provide up to 92% of the market value of a property purchased. The maximum loan amount will be € 285k, will be a normal Capital and Interest bearing mortgage and will be repaid on a monthly basis over a maximum 30-year term. The Home Choice Loan will only be available for newly built homes.
This results in the relatively ludicrous situation where, in a failing economy, which has for a decade been over-reliant on construction, our government’s idea of a rescue plan is to provide mortgages to (presumably) young, financially-insecure individuals to buy new-built houses. In other words, the powers that be are securing monies to enable developers build yet more houses for a saturated and collapsing market while businesses in other areas are going to the wall. Have we learned nothing from our history? When the potato crop fails because the prevailing conditions will not allow them grow, do you plant more potatoes? We’re planting more potatoes.

But back to lighter relief, also known as the City Council Meeting. Yet another entertaining snippet from the meeting was left on the cutting-room floor as we were regaled by one of the elder statesmen regarding the necessity of having the Cork equivalent of the London Black Cab. This need to colour-code the taxis emerged from private discussions on how to improve the general levels of safety on the streets of Cork. The speaker took the floor during a different discussion which rested on the argued need to reduce the number of taxis in the city as many lie idle and the worrying fact that owning a taxi or hackney licence is no guarantee now of a livable wage. However, the interruption to decide on a colour-scheme was deemed worthy of five minutes’ monologue. Perhaps it gave the rest of the councillors time to boil the kettle in the staff room next door before they settled in to some real debate. Or perhaps I am being unkind by indulging my cycnicism and maybe they simply felt that they could not do the topic as much justice as the speaker and so hid their sense of inadequacy by talking to their neighbours or leaving the room altogether.

But seriously folks, sitting to the side and watching proceedings, I was shocked and appalled by the manner in which the councillors conducted themselves. I witnessed behaviour that would not be tolerated in a classroom full of children. While individual councillors made points, the room was full of whispered (and not-so-whispered) giggling conversations, individuals checking phones and websites or wandering in and out of the room to make calls or get coffee. The lack of attention to the matters in hand by the bulk of those in my line of view and the cavalier manner in which they were behaving showed to me an almost complete lack of respect for the public, on whose behalf they are supposed to be working. I came away with a very bad taste in my mouth and no respect left for the council. I can only imagine what the IDA and the Enterprise Board will make of them when they meet. Assuming they can fit the extra meetings into their schedules, that is.

On second thoughts, if you choose to spend your Monday evening watching our City Councillors at work, rest and play, leave the big picnic at home and travel light – just bring tomatoes.

References:
1) Own notes taken from City Council Meeting, 12th January 2009
2) Websites:
a) http://www.corkcity.ie/
b) http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/housingcommunity/housingloansandgrants/
c) http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/corporateaffairs/minutesofordinarymeetings/MinsCouncilMeeting120109.pdf
d) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/10/economic-policy-small-business-loans