Cork has 12 mayors. 12.

Apparently, Midleton Town Council is pondering using taxpayers’ money to sue Phil Hogan after he proposed abolishing them. Not their own money, or indeed a fund raised by local people eager to save this vital part of local democracy. Taxpayers’s money.

Listening to a gang of them on the radio talking about “subsidiarity” and the like, you just have to love when people, like senators, are faced with abolition, they get all values orientated and start talking about noble concepts of democracy et al. Stuff they’d never heard of six months previously.

Here’s a thought: Phil Hogan should take the councillors at their word. They say they speak for local people, so tell the local people that it is their call. The town council can remain if they vote to keep it, as long as they understand that it will be funded 100% by a new locally levied Town Council Tax. Then we’ll see how many mayors the people of Cork wish to fund.