Of the eight municipal districts in Cork County, the West Cork Municipal District has nine elected public representatives.
Every five years, five of the nine are elected in the Skibbereen electoral area, and four in the Bantry electoral area.
The name given to each electoral area is, of course, a broad term because there are many towns, villages and rural areas contained within both the Skibbereen and Bantry areas.
Prior to 2014, there were 12 county councillors serving West Cork – five in Bantry and seven in Skibbereen.
In addition, there were 27 town councillors, and town commissioners, in the towns of Bantry, Skibbereen and Clonakilty.
In 2014 – in what was billed as a reform of local government – all of the town councils, and town commissioners, were abolished, and the number of county councillors was reduced from 12 to nine.
There were, of course, three additional county councillors in the Bandon electoral area, which included Kinsale, plus nine town commissioners in Bandon, and nine town councillors in Kinsale.
Today, the West Cork Municipal District and the Bandon-Kinsale Municipal District have a total of 15 councillors serving on their respective districts and on Cork County Council.
After the changes made in 2014, members of the West Cork Municipal District saw themselves as serving all of West Cork, stretching from Timoleague to the Dursey Sound.
But, shortly before the 2019 local election, further changes were made and a boundary commission implemented changes that were designed to provide one elected councillor per 6,000 head of population.
It resulted in a re-drawing of the boundaries between the Skibbereen and Bantry electoral areas and West Cork was split down the middle.
The re-drawing of the boundary continues to cause confusion and it, famously, saw Cllr Paul Hayes (Ind) opting to continue to represent Clonakilty, as part of the Skibbereen area, despite the fact that his home in Courtmacsherry had been amalgamated into the Bandon-Kinsale Municipal District.
Of the two areas, Bantry is the most geographically challenging because it includes the sprawling Mizen Head, Sheep’s Head and the Beara peninsulas.
In addition, the Bantry boundary stretches beyond Kealkil in the north, east to Drimoleague, and runs in a long line south that skirts the boundary of Skibbereen town at Aughadown.
The Skibbereen area takes in Skibbereen town and goes as far west as Ardfield, Clonakilty and close to the Bandon boundary.
From Castlehaven and Myross on the coast, Skibbereen stretches as far north as Coolmountain outside Dunmanway, west to Castletownkinneigh, and close to the electoral boundary with Bandon.
In the Bantry area, Bantry town has the highest concentration of votes, with approximately 4,000 votes, followed by Castletownbere, while Glengarriff, Schull and Kealkil have around 1,000 each.
In the Skibbereen area, Clonakilty town has an estimated 5,000 votes, followed by Skibbereen town with 3,000, and Dunmanway with 2,000.
On June 7th next the people of West Cork will be casting their votes to ensure their concerns will be raised by their nine public representatives at West Cork Municipal District and County Council level.
