THE biggest shakeup in Fermanagh District Council has taken the next step after assembly members at Stormont debated how the new council merger will operate.
The second stage surrounding the Local Government Bill was outlined to MLAs giving further details on the so-called ‘super-councils’ and how they will be run.
Fermanagh Council is to be amalgamated with Omagh council which will start to come into effect in April of next year.
There have been concerns over the impact the council merger will have on local jobs. The bill, which is 94 pages long, addresses this matter by stating that compensation will be made to those who lose their job as a direct impact of the amalgamation.
However, Thomas O’Reilly, a joint chairman of the Fermanagh and Omagh Statutory Transition Committee, said there will be no job losses as a result of the council merger.
Asked if there will be an impact on council jobs he responded: “No, our idea is to be able to protect all jobs in the council and transfer all our very valued workforce. There’s no indication that it will hamper any jobs.
“We have not encountered any problems and people now realise it’s a process that has to be worked through and it’s a complicated one to bring these two relatively large organisations together.”
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