The Corporate Affairs Department is responsible for the provision and management of a very wide range of services, which include County Council Meetings, Building Administration, Corporate Planning, Organisation Development, Franchise, Policy Research.

 

Register of Electors

A Register of Electors is produced annually. The Register is a list of all persons over 18 years of age resident in the County who are entitled to vote in Elections to the Dail, European Assembly, Presidential, Local Elections and Referenda.

Local Electoral Area	No of Electors
Piltown	14,809
Kilkenny City	14,076
Ballyragget	12,239
Thomastown	12,205
Callan	8,595
Kilkenny	4,896

 

In May 2006, the Minister for the Environment announced a package of measures aimed at assisting local authorities in securing significant improvements in the accuracy of the register. In Kilkenny Local Authorities several meetings were held with fieldworkers in May 2006 where the core proposals aimed at improving the accuracy were outlined.

Commencing the process of preparing the Draft Register as soon as possible after 1^st June 2006 - Field Workers, current and new to be properly trained on procedures:

• Ensuring a minimum of two calls per dwelling by field workers where information was not obtained on the first visit or a form has not been returned.
• Obtain information from the household only - no third party information.
• Date of birth to be collected for all persons, where possible.
• Application of a property identification number to link registered persons to each property.
• Use of a customized and user-friendly Register Work Book to record appropriate details.
• Consistently adhering to the Department of Environment Guidelines as issued.
• On-going publicity of the registration process.
• Adequate back-up office staff to update the Register on an on- going basis.
• Adequate checking and audit of the process.

A total of 37 fieldworkers were employed on compiling the Register during 2006.

The Draft Register was printed on the 1st November and distributed to Post Offices, Libraries, and Garda Stations thus providing people with the opportunity to check if they were on the Draft Register A website set also up for this purpose www.checktheregister.ie

All claims were entered on the system and investigated. They then had to go before the County Registrar at the Claims Court for a final decision. The result was an as accurate an update of the Register of Electors as was possible within the time and resource constraints. The live register will be printed on the 1st February, 2007.

Supplement to the Register: A person who is qualified to be registered but, for any reason, is not included on the published register, may apply to be included on a supplement to the register before the fourteenth day before polling day (Sundays, Public Holidays and Good Friday are excluded). Following the Electoral Amendment Act, 2001 applications to be included on the supplement to the Register of Electors must now be witnessed by a member of the Gárda Siochana.

Under the provisions of the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001, a person who is on a Register of Electors and moves residence from one constituency to another constituency or from one local electoral area to another local electoral area, can apply for entry onto the supplement at their new address, provided the person authorises the appropriate local authority to delete their name from their old address.

Section 66 Grants:

A total of 65 Grants were awarded under the above Scheme totalling €40,000.

 

Customer Service Initiatives

BARCELONA DECLARATION:

The Draft Kilkenny Local Authority Disability Implementation Plan has been developed in consultation with the National Disability.

Authority, the Kilkenny access group, the Barcelona Implementation Team, and a number of disability groups within the County. The Barcelona Implementation team responsible for the implementation of the implementation plan (Disability Act) is made up of representatives from the Disability Sector, staff from Kilkenny Local Authorities including, Housing, Community and Enterprise, Human Resources, the Equality Officer, Elected representative, the IT Department Director of Community and Enterprise and the Borough Council. A Barcelona Declaration Team was set up in 2004 the implementation team will be responsible for the formulation and implementation of the requirements under the Sectoral Plan. Audits are presently being completed on Local Authority Buildings

 

INFORMATION DESK:

The Customer Information Desk has played a significant part in delivering a higher standard of service to our customers as part of an on-going change process in the Council. The Information Desk was introduced in a bid to be more open and responsive to the needs of our customers. During this time the staff have provided an information service on all Council services as well as matters outside the remit of the Council.

 

Ombudsman Complaints

Complaints received	9
Complaints responded to	9
Subject of Complaints	Planning, Housing, Water Services, Roads & Miscellaneous

 

Freedom of Information

Applications b/f  2005	1
No of applications requests received 2006	20
No of requests granted	11
No of requests part granted	4
No of requests refused	1
No of requests withdrawn	0
Live cases at 31/12/06	5

 

Appeals

No of internal Reviews received		1
No of Appeals to Info Comm		0
Sources of Requests	Business Interests	7
	Staff	2
	Others	9
	Journalists	2

 

Number of Council Meetings + Payments to Councillors

Number of Council Meetings, Committee Meetings Held from 1st January, 2006 to 31st December, 2006.

No. of Ordinary Monthly Meetings	11	SPC1 - Economic Development & Planning Policy	5
Annual Meeting	1	SPC2 - Infrastructure, Transportation, Water Services & Other	4
Special Meetings of the Council	4	SPC3 - Environmental Policy including Sanitary Services, Fire Services, Emergency Planning	3
Estimates	1	SPC4 - Housing Policy, Social	4
Thomastown Electoral Area	6	SPC5 - Arts, Culture, Heritage, Tourism, Education	4
Thomastown Expanded Area	2	Woodstock	0
Kilkenny Electoral Area	6	Integrated Area Plan	2
Kilkenny Expanded Area	1	Goul Joint Drainage	2
Callan	2	County Development Board	6
Callan Expanded Area	2	County Enterprise Board	9
Piltown Electoral Area	5	Water Safety	6
Piltown Expanded Area	1	Barrow Nore Suir	9
Ballyragget Electoral Area	5	Kilkenny Community Action Network (KCAN)	11
Ballyragget Expanded Area	2	Corporate Policy Group	9
Traveller Accommodation	1	Rural Water Monitoring	2

Payments to Councillors

Monthly Allowance :	€122,049.87
Training and Education Allowance :	€123,416.37
Foreign Travel:	€6,621.89
Representational Payment :	€423,824.18
SPC Allowance :	€25,394.40

 

 

Workplace Partnership in Kilkenny County and City Councils

During 2006 the process of Managing Change Through Partnership has continued with the embedding of the process through local initiatives and the implementation of national policies.

The "Sustaining Progress" agreement came to its conclusion in 2006. As part of the terms of this agreement increases under Benchmarking had to be verified against agreed commitments and flexibility measures. Action Plans were completed in 2006 and commitments were honoured. Following conclusion of the new National Pay Agreement "Towards 2016" this verification process is set to continue for 2007. The first phase of the agreement was due in December 2006 following completion of a report summarising progress made under the previous pay agreement.

The Partnership Committee which comprises of representatives of management and unions continued to meet on a monthly basis during 2006. Amongst the issues raised through Partnership were the Performance Management Development System.This process was rolled out and was nearly completed by the end of 2006. This completion is due in no small measure to the support of the PMDS process by both trade union representatives and officials and Management representatives on the committee. Updates were also given to the committee regarding potential Public Private Partnerships.

Projects brought to completion that were initiated by the various working groups included:-

• Continuance of cross functional team meetings at area level.
• Production of staff news letter.
• Kilkenny People Page.
• Establishment of the Customer Service Desk.
• Extension of lunchtime opening across the organisation.
• Introduction of swipe system improving security within County Hall.
• Introduction of a limited form of flexi time coordinated with lunchtime opening.

 

Amongst the worthwhile projects which were initiated and brought through the Partnership process is the Junior Achievement programme whereby volunteers from Kilkenny Local Authorities complete a programme with local schools informing them about their community and the world of work.

Killian Hennessy and Kieran Howley Kilkenny Fire Service the "guests of honour at the presentation of Junior Achievement Certificates to pupils of 1st Class at Saint Johns Primary School with some new fans.

 

Phil Curran and Siobhan English Kilkenny County Council Junior Achievement Volunteers with pupils,teachers and guests from the fire service at the awards ceremony for pupils from Saint Johns National School who completed their Junior Achievement course in December 2006.

 

The Health Promotion in the Workplace programme was continued under the partnership umbrella with work shops held in the Castlecomer, Thomastown, Newrath and Kilkenny Borough Areas attended by staff from the information unit of the Health Service Executive.

Recognition was given to partnership projects from Kilkenny County Council at national level with the short listing of the Water Conservation Pilot Project in the Clogh Castlecomer Area to the national final in November. The project was highly commended at an awards ceremony at the national conference in Athlone in November. Great credit goes to all who took part in the Working Group particularly the caretaker for the scheme, John Coady.

Credit was also given to the crèche feasibility study project which was short listed amongst the three best non funded projects arising from the Southern region. Following a presentation by the Crèche feasibility working group, it was agreed at management level that childcare facilities would be included as part of any new developments being put in place under the proposed plaza facility in County Hall.

Some difficulties were experienced within the process in 2006 due to the withdrawal of members from the SIPTU Union for a number of months. However, following a meeting between the SIPTU Union, partnership representatives and management reps with the LANPAG joint chairs in October 2006, the members rejoined the various committees and all sides committed to adhering to the various protocols under Handling Significant Change Through Partnership Process" for any future difficulties which may arise.

Following the review of the process in October 2006 a Kilkenny Borough Council group resumed to examine proposed restructuring measures to take place in 2007.

Presentation of award under 'Excellence through Partnership' by Mr.Ned O'Connor (Co Manager South Tipperary and member of LANPAG) to
Adrian Waldron Workplace Partnership Facilitator in respect of the Water Conservation Project