According to a Cobh Municipality spokesperson outdoor Council staff in both Cobh and Glanmire will be requested to work in other areas of the borough.
The force of 23 workers (12 in Cobh, 9 in Glanmire and 2 in Rathcooney Grave Yard ) will now be assigned duties anywhere between Cobh and Glenville.
These outdoor staff will now service the needs of just under 55,000 people that’s an increased population of 22,000.
While Structures, functions, funding, governance and operational arrangements are all currently under review the twelve Cobh staff have been advised that their working week could be reduced from a five day to a two day week.
Last Monday 16 June at a staff briefing workers were advised that they would have to cut back on the normal local functions they had traditionally carried out with their primary focus now on maintaining the regions roads.
At the height of the tourist season the collection of local refuse in the Cobh area has changed from a daily collection service to a twice weekly service. Bins in Cobh will now be emptyied on Mondays and Fridays only.
Grass in the towns common areas will only be cut once a month. Borough staff will no longer have the responsibility for watering plants.
While rubbish piles up at the start of the Irish Open, outdoor staff were transferred to Watergrass Hill on road repair duties leaving bins in Cobh town center flowing to capacity and refuse bags uncollected.
Sinn Fein Councillor Kieran McCarthy said “this is an incredible departure from past practices of maintaining cleanliness and order of our streets and town front, and can only result in chaos with a serious blow to tourism.” Councillor McCarthy added “why haven’t we got the resources to empty our town’s rubbish bins each day – but have €6,000 to pay a councillor to simply chair meetings every two weeks!”
Labour Councillor Cathal Rasmussen said that when he spoke to a representative of the Executive he was advised everything is currently under review and was given a guarantee no decision will be made until towards the end of the year.