*Cllr Tony O’Brien.
ELECTED MEMBERS IN EAST Clare are to seek a meeting with Clare County Council’s HR department over ‘staffing deficits impacting on service delivery’.
A review on the staff numbers of general operatives in the Killaloe Municipal District was sought by Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) in a proposal before its July meeting in Scariff.
Killaloe based O’Brien wished that this be done “as a matter of urgency as I believe the shortage of workers will have a serious negative impact on our service delivery”.
Pauline McNamara, administrative officer in the Council’s human resources department stated in response that all current general operative posts were “filled in accordance with the current workforce plan and department sanction for Killaloe Municipal District. The human resources department leads the strategic workforce planning remit and engages with each of the directorates regularly for this purpose”.
She said, “the current staffing model and resource allocation including reprioritising is sufficient to deliver on the Council’s corporate objectives presently. Future resourcing is currently evolving and forms part of ongoing workforce planning”.
Speaking at the July meeting, Cllr O’Brien praised the ongoing work of general operatives in East Clare to provide the existing services. “In certain areas there is a deficit, to say I’m annoyed with a response by HR is an understatement,” he stated. O’Brien questioned if senior management shared the view of the response. He then asked that a meeting be arranged with the top table of Council management, its HR department, him as Chair of the Killaloe MD and Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) in his role as Mayor of Clare.
O’Brien added, “I’m of the opinion that there is a deficit in certain areas that need to be addressed, it is having a seriously negative impact on service delivery”.
Seconding the proposal, Cllr Cooney said he had no problem sitting down with senior management to see what could be done. “With circumstances outside of control we have members on sick leave,” he acknowledged.
Workers need to be better supported financially, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) believed. “The whole recruitment process needs a full review, I don’t think we’re recruiting general operatives, we actually need workers on the ground and to prioritise that and ensure workers are supported financially better”.
Acting senior executive officer, Padraig Mac Cormaic told the meeting, “I know there is a workforce plan agreed by all directorates that was agreed by the Council, every Director had an input into that plan. It is a battle and everyone wants extra resources, it was discussed recently by senior management”.
Mac Cormaic outlined that there was national regulations around payment of staff, “it is possibly an issue across local authorities nationally that the public sector is not paying as much as people expected”.
