Ex minister criticises local council reorganisation
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain’s decision to side with Sinn Féin and slash the number of local councils in the North from 26 to just seven came under fire from his predecessor today.
Paul Murphy said the cut was too much and when he had been in office up to the May General Election he had been looking at cutting the councils to between 11 and 15.
Mr Hain’s announcement this week as part of wide ranging reforms of the system of public administration in Northern Ireland has been widely condemned by the local political parties.
Sinn Féin was the only party to back the seven council structure – with the others advocating a reduction to 15.
Each of the councils, three in the west and three in the east of the province, together with a Belfast council, will have 50 councillors.
Opponents of the structure say it will in effect partition Ulster – with the western councils under nationalist control and the eastern under Unionist.
Mr Murphy, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s ‘Inside Politics’ programme, said he would have made radical cuts but thought the government had been “too sharp” in its pruning.
“I made it pretty clear when I was in office that I would have preferred a bigger number of councils – between eleven and fifteen was what I was looking at.”
He added: “You have got to try and bring people together on these issues and I think there is a job of persuasion there on the part of the Government, most political parties in Northern Ireland are not too keen on the seven councils.”
Final consultation on the number of councils had not taken place before he left office, said Mr Murphy.
However he added he was “absolutely sure” he would have stuck to the 11-15 council numbers he had been advocating.
“I think you have to look at communities and also to ensure that you get both sides, nationalists and unionists in the communities, being able to work together,” said Mr Murphy.
