County Mayor expresses his pride at how Cork has faced up to COVID-19
HOWEVER, IAN DOYLE WARNS OF TESTING TIMES AHEAD AS CORK PREPARES FRO THE LORD ROAD TO RECOVERY THIS YEAR
WHEN Charleville’s Ian Doyle took over the chain of office as the Mayor Of County Cork in February, replacing the outgoing incumbent Christopher O’Sullivan, following his election to Dáil Eireann, Cllr Doyle knew his tenure would be a short one.
Even though his term as mayor would only last until Cork County Council’s AGM in June, Cllr Doyle said he was nonetheless “privileged” to serve as Cork County’s first citizen, pledging to devote all his energy to the role.
However, neither he nor anyone else for that matter, could have possibly predicted that within a matter of a few short weeks the world would be turned on its head by the COVID-19 pandemic and Cllr Doyle would preside over the authority during the most challenging period in its history.
“Yes, I think that by any measure the past few weeks have been unprecedented. That is a word that can often be overused, but in this particular case it suits the situation we found ourselves in perfectly,” Cllr Doyle told The Corkman.
Cllr Doyle said that following the countrywide lock-down Cork County Council was faced with the almost impossible task of adapting its operations within the space of just 24-hours.
“To put this into some kind of context, it normally takes months of committee meetings at divisional and full council level to sanction changes to operational services. To be given just 24-hours was a massive challenge,” he said.
Virtually overnight provisions were made to make more than 120 of the authority’s services available online and a COVID-19 Community Support Programme established to co-ordinate a multi-agency approach to the delivery of other essential services to vulnerable citizens across the entire county.
The council has also worked with gardaí, first responders, community groups and volunteers to coordinate the delivery of medicines, provisions and even library books to people cocooning within their homes during the current crisis.
Under the programme the authority also made 200 vehicles and drivers available to respond to requests from vulnerable people for the delivery of medicines, food and other essential items directly to their homes, through 19 community hubs set up across the county.
One hugely successful initiative was the establishment of Cork County Council’s COVID-19 Community Response helpline (1800 805 819), which fielded almost 500 calls from concerned members of the public during its first week of operation and continues to be a vital way for people to communicate with the authority.
“I cannot express how proud I am of the incredible efforts of the council, our staff and communities across Cork for the amazing way in which they have risen above the immense challenges we have faced over recent weeks to keep the county running as smoothly as possible,” Cllr Doyle.
“It has not been an ideal time to be Mayor and of course I would have liked to have had a more orthodox term in office. That said, it has been inspiring to see at first hand what can be done by an entire community when it comes together to work for the common good.”
However, as we see the first signs of life returning to some kind of normality, Cllr Doyle said he and council officials are only too aware that the road ahead is paved with even more challenges.
Perhaps the biggest of these will be addressing the significant shortfall in finances due to a substantial reduction in revenue from commercial rates and other income streams such as pay parking.
“I know from my experience as a councillor that juggling finances can be a difficult task at the best of times, perhaps even more so since the recent boundary changes impacted on certain revenue streams,” said Cllr Doyle.
He said that it was now up to the council to put pressure on the Government to ensure previously agreed budgets are supplemented to allow the council make good on commitments made in relation to issues such as social housing, roads maintenance and other capital projects made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like every other local authority in he country we will have to fight, and fight hard, to make sure we receive the level of funding we need moving forward,” said Cllr Doyle.
“Unless we receive that kind of budgetary support capital projects will suffer and the work of community bodies and business support groups will be impacted. As the county begins the recovery process from COVID-19 this cannot, and must not, be allowed to happen.”
Cllr Doyle warned that other local capital projects, such as the M20 motorway and the Mallow Relief Road, could also be in jeopardy as the Government comes under increasing pressure to balance the nations finances following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There will be huge obstacles to surmount and financing them will be huge challenge for us as a local authority and on a wider national scale in light of the financial impact of COVID-19. There is also the toll it has taken on commerce to be taken into consideration, for example the tourism industry in Cork has been devastated,” said Cllr Doyle.
“It is going to take along time to recover. However, if the same resilience I have seen over recent weeks is anything to go by we will recover and there will be better days ahead,” he concluded.