AN ARCHAIC statutory rule has been blamed for Cork County Council spending 2,274 on private couriers to send a two-line letter to county councillors.
The same message could have been sent for less than 10 by using text messages, or by email at no cost at all.
Private couriers have also been used by City Hall to send shamrocks to Coventry for St Patrick’s Day. The costs were revealed in a Freedom of Information Request by the Evening Echo.
During last year’s Presidential election race, an emergency meeting of Cork County Council was called when Senator David Norris was seeking a late nomination from the local authority to run for the Áras.
However, rather than phoning, sending text messages or emails to councillors to inform them of the meeting, the council spent 2,274 on couriers to send written notification.
Couriers from DHL were dispatched to deliver the note — about two sentences long — to the 48 councillors located all across the 7,459 square kilometres of Cork county.
In some instances, the couriers arrived at councillors’ homes at midnight to ensure the required three days notice period for the September 28 meeting was covered.
Then county mayor, Tim Lombard, recalled how Senator Norris sought the support of the council with just days before the nominations closed.
“The statutory provision required that the notification had to be made in writing and we had to give three days notice to councillors. Unfortunately, the only choice at the time was to use couriers.”
Cllr Lombard said the provision is clearly outdated as most councillors have access to emails and texts messages.
“The provisions should be changed so that, where possible, the notifications can be sent electronically.”
The 2,274 was part of an overall spend by Cork city and county councils of almost 40,000 on couriers over the last two and a half years.
The city council spent 8,317 on couriers between January 1, 2011, and June 30 this year.
Included in this were two deliveries by couriers of shamrock to Coventry around St Patrick’s Day in 2011 and 2012. The UK town is twinned with Cork.
The city council also sent a number of undisclosed items and documents to China — it’s also twinned with Shanghai — at a cost of around 1,800.
Cork County Council spent 15,511.21 on couriers in 2010 and 15,289.32 in 2011, but did not give a detailed breakdown of what was sent and where.