Brendan Hegarty: Local Government Reform

Wednesday, 25 May 2016: Brendan Hegarty: Local Government Reform

Having explained the political make-up of the new Council [16 SF, 8 UUP, 6 SDLP, 5 DUP and 5 Independents] and the composition of the Executive Team, Mr Hegarty provided some interesting statistics. In relation to Northern Ireland as a whole, the district has 20% of the land area, 30% of the forests, 6.2% of the population, 5.6% of the jobs, and 11% of the businesses. FODC has some 7,340 businesses, 83% of which have 5 or fewer employees. More than 13% of the population is age 65 and over, a figure expected to increase to 20% by 2025. Although the merger of the two councils has gone smoothly it has not been without its problems. One in particular relates to the cost of refuse collection and increasingly stringent regulations on how much can go to landfill and how much must be re-cycled. Mr Hegarty then dealt a range of issues relating to the management of a public organisation which employs over 1,000 people and has an annual budget of over £30 m. He spoke about its Constitution, Corporate Plan, Themes and Priorities as well as issues to be addressed over the next three years. After taking questions on Fracking and the Strule Shared Educational Campus, Mr Hegarty was thanked for his talk by Probus member Eamon Cunningham.