Local Government changes

meditraitor

Will FG or Labour move forward in the creation of a single tier local government system which is more streamlined?

I seem to recall a bit of movement on this issue a couple of years ago but Ive heard nothing since, the idea is to abolish all town councils and other such nonsense and reduce the number of County Councils.

Is it a good idea? What use are town councils?,Have we too many County councils (councillers).

There has to be a significant saving here!

dan_d

I think we should consider seriously slimming down the councils but giving them more powers. And in tandem with that, reducing the number of TDs, but pushing them towards national issues, rather than local issues, which should be dealt with by the local councillors. Similar to French and Italian systems, where every town has a "mairie" or town hall, and a mayor, who looks after local issues and is voted in by the people.

Our Government is not focused enough as an entity on Ireland as a whole, particularly around election time.At best it's a bunch of individuals who come together every week, and listen with half an ear in the Dail. At worst (ie, when elections come around), it becomes a completely seperated bunch of individuals, each of whom run to their local area to gather votes by concerning themselves with the state of the local potholes and GAA pitches, while abandoning the affairs of the country.

There would be savings in many ways by even small alterations to the current system. However, we are apparently not a people who believe in short term investment for long term gain. We hunker down when things are bad and refuse to change the status quo, rather than getting stuck in and looking at how we could make radical changes that would benefit us down the line - as in, in 5-10 years, not the 1-2 years that our politicians simply can't see past.

Sulmac

OP, here's a good thread from a few months ago on local government reform.

If I remember correctly, Fine Gael published a policy document a few months ago on local government reform called 'Power to the People' or something like that. However their regular site isn't online at the moment so I can't find it. As far as I can recall, it didn't contain any substantial changes, though had some good ideas.

Labour, I'm not too sure about. I can't find anything recent on their site but I have found part of their 2007 general election manifesto on local government. Bear in mind that this was agreed with Fine Gael beforehand as part of the 'Mullingar Accord'. It's got some bigger ideas.

Victor

I think the main problem (aside from interference from national level politicians) is the lack of balance.

There is a huge difference between (a) Cork and Dublin and the rest of the country and (b) between urban and rural in the level of representation. The number of councillors feeds through to Seanad elections.

It would be useful to have perhaps 10 regional councils who would be big enough to deal with government departments and capable of both planning and delivering services and then to have perhaps 100 local council / committees to decide what type of flowers to plant in the park (yes, I might be harsh in that statement).


http://www.dermotlacey.ie/blog/2009/02/dubliners-their-city/

The figures i.e. the facts, demonstrate that the average ratio across the EU range from:

118 per head of population per Councillor in France,
250 per head of population in Sweden and 350 in Germany.
This rises to 610 in Spain and 1100 per head of population in Greece and Belgium.
Here in Ireland the figure is one Councillor to every 2,336 people.
Only the United Kingdom has a higher ratio with one Councillor to every 2,603 per head of population. However in that case no account is taken for the representative roles of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Regional Assemblies which significantly alters the real figures.

In my own ward of Pembroke-Rathmines – the largest in the Country – the figure is an astonishing, one Councillor for every 10,000 people.

Council Population|Members |Population per Member
Leitrim |28,950 |22 |1,316
Longford |34,391 |21| 1,638
Sligo |60,894 |25 |2,436

Cork North| 80,769 |13| 6,213
Cork South |227,543|23|9,893
Cork West| 53,565 |12| 4,464
Cork City| 119,418|31 |3,852

Dublin City |506,211| 52| 9,735

Manach

My own utopian idea would to have more local involvement like those town councils in the US state of New Hampshire. Specifically where the community has an opportunity to gather annually and make points (which might range from the sensible to completely OTT) to the elected executive body.

Sulmac

Victor wrote: »

It would be useful to have perhaps 10 regional councils who would be big enough to deal with government departments and capable of both planning and delivering services and then to have perhaps 100 local council / committees to decide what type of flowers to plant in the park (yes, I might be harsh in that statement).

I fully agree with this.

We need a proper two-tier system of local government. On the upper tier there would be regions surrounding the major cities/towns while below them there would be municipalities that surround other sizeable towns.

Regions would have proper responsibilities and powers, including the power to raise revenue through property taxes, as well as shares in income tax and VAT from their area (or, like in some countries, being able to raise income tax within limits). Same goes for municipalities.

sarkozy

I worked on this in a think-tank for a year in 2007/08, around the time John Gormley. I was working on developing proposals for government and analysing the government's proposals at the time. The conclusion on whether 'the most radical reform' of local government would be delivered was a big, fat 'no'. The debate seems to have been reduced to the introduction of a directly-elected mayor for Dublin (or the Dublin region, however that will be definied). Are we in need of 'radical reform'? Absolutely.

Structures, functions and funding need to be changed. At present, our national governance structure doesn't work. We need to redraw the structures of local government in a way that supports the flourishing of local democracy where communities are genuinely involved in decisions that affect them. This would bring stronger accountability. How? Councils (local and regional) would have more functions including health and policing. With this would have to come the freedom to raise and use local finances - this would have to come through local taxation. There's a perfectly good reason for this: it fosters real accountability - the moment people see their local taxes squandered by local politicians is the moment they demand better. Local funding doesn't have to come at an extra cost - it's revenue neutral because national and local income tax is reallocated (e.g. half of our income tax goes to central and half goes to local government but the overall amount remains the same). And if councillors continue voting in the same gombeens who keep on messing things up, well this is democracy in action. We need to trust ourselves to foster real citizenship aimed at improving the country for all people.

The other thing is that local government reform actually means whole-of-government-reform. We're talking about setting out a long-term plan for the realignment of national governance from top to bottom based on very sound and broadly consulted and agreed guiding principles and objectives.

Anyway, I just don't believe any of the parties save for the Greens have any real appetite to change things, no matter how many councillors cry about how scandlous it all is and how it all needs to change.

Victor

Corrected table. Apologies, it hasn't been showing properly for me. Note, the three main areas in Cork County council operates separately for some purposes.

Council |Population|Members |Population per Member
Leitrim |28,950 |22 |1,316
Longford |34,391 |21 |1,638
Sligo |60,894 |25 |2,436
Cork North |80,769 |13 |6,213
Cork South |227,543 |23 |9,893
Cork West |53,565 |12 |4,464
Cork City |119,418 |31 |3,852
Dublin City |506,211 |52 |9,735

sarkozy

Then you add a column on what funding each Council receives from the Motor Tax Fund to show how screwed up the Needs & Assessment formula is. It's madness I tells ya.

enda1

Its hard to compare Ireland v France for example when France has such a layered system whereas Ireland has just the two. We need to expect a lower representation compared to such a country for the councils to be able to operate at a more strategic level and thus shield much of the petty decision making from central government.

On the other hand I can't believe the figures about Belgium? It seems crazy to me but could be possible I guess. I say this cause I live here and feel the intrusion of these gombeen politicians in my daily life. Plus they have a crazy number of layers of government for such a small country (population and area) [Federal, Regional, Provincial, Arrondissements, Local (Commune)].

nuac

Re Town Councils - a good TC can be very effective in a town. Towns need to grow and develope properly to balance the over-development of Dublin.

It is an EU principle to devolve power and functions down as close as possible to the people affected. Town COuncils fulfill this role by keeping decision making and implementation local.