The next government must put in place radical local government reform if they want this country to work. If done correctly it will also facilitate the reform of how our politicians do their business at a national level.

Councillors currently have so little power that they are completely and utterly dependent on the good will of the county manager and director of services to get anything done. The biggest problem with this is that Councillors are then incentivised to keep their mouths shut when they identify serious mismanagement and wastage in the system. You are punished for opening you mouth. I have in fact been taken aside on many occasions by other councillors and given ‘advice’ that if I kept pointing out that the council was a shambles then I would not get any jobs done. My colleagues were basically encouraging me to ignore wholesale waste in order that I might get a few favours from the county manager. It is striking how they were more worried about a ‘fellow’ Councillor then they were about rate payers’ money being wasted.

Under a new local governments system the number of Councillors should be reduced by 75% and their powers greatly enhanced. The current numbers cost councils an exorbitant amount of money and make council meetings unmanageable and to be honest a joke. Each councillor would have to take up the role on a full time basis and not be able to take another job such as being a community welfare officer which is clearly a serious conflict of interest. Those in receipt of state pensions should have to forego them as long as they held the position of Councillor. Each Councillor should be based in their local area office for four days of the week dealing directly with the public on localised issues of concern. The local councillor would have the final say in getting things done. As with any power comes responsibility. It will be up to the public when electing these councillors to decide who is best at delivering the services in an efficient and effective way.

Sitting along side a reduced number of councillors would be a directly elected Mayor to replace the County Manager. The Mayor would be elected for period of five year to work alongside, in a cabinet style format, the area councillors. The Mayor and Councillors would use the Directors of services for advice but ultimately the elected representatives would be the final decision makers. Currently we are an expensive ‘rubber stamper’ for unaccountable practices which cost the rate payers dearly.

The reduction in the number of councillors would directly save local authorities such as Leitrim and Roscommon in the region of 1 million euro each. There is no doubt that another million in savings could easily be found if those who were elected were held directly responsible for waste. These saving could be passed on to local businesses by reducing their rates by up to 25% helping to boost employment.

With proper local government then national politicians can concentrate on running the country. No more need for them to be going into the local council area office looking to get pot holes filled. Under such a system 100 TD’s would be more than enough. The Seanad should also be abolished as it is only a glorified talking shop. Under a reformed local government system TD’s should be debarred from making representations to local authorities. This must be done because otherwise they would not be able to resist sticking their nose into Councillors duties.

Comments

Submitted by Conan Croghan @ 11:20 am, 18th Feb '11
Yes this coud be a way foward but you would need skilled people to fill these vocations as most politicians are part-time at best......I beleive all government organisations should be responsible for wastage of any resource including volunteers which are an under appreciated asset here in Ireland. what about direct community employment for young job seekers reciepients in local projects.i.e. Moate Park, the Water Mill, , the river schemes and allthe other under used resources in our beautiful county.even the restoration in St John Castle.......?

Submitted by M. Walsh @ 11:01 am, 2nd Mar '11
It is time to give the people more power by the use of referendums. This would take power away from the political class. The politicians should not be allowed to overturn the decision of a referendum if they do not agree with the verdict of the people as they did during the Lisbon referendum. This would be an Irish solution to an Irish problem! In Switzerland a country far more prosperous and more efficiently run than here the people have the right to call referendums if a certain number of signatures have been collected on a particular issue. If the Referendum is passed it becomes binding on the political class. Apart from the use of Referendums the Swiss system of democracy is far more empowering and democratic than the system the politicians have created in this country and would be a very useful model for political reform and giving power back to the people

Submitted by Vincent Lang @ 10:00 am, 21st Apr '11
“The politicians should not be allowed to overturn the decision of a referendum if they do not agree with the verdict of the people as they did during the Lisbon referendum”.

I have heard the above quote from very many people. It is the single biggest misinterpretation of political action by the Irish electorate in the last ten years.
The politicians did not overturn the decision of the first Lisbon referendum. On the face of it the people of Ireland were asked to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for the Lisbon Treaty. However the underlying question that the politicians were asking us, (and the EU was asking the politicians) was “Europe is changing. How does Ireland want to do business with the rest of Europe, because the rest of Europe wants to implement the Lisbon Treaty?”

Ireland voted ‘No’. That meant that the Irish politicians were left with the question of how Ireland wanted to do business with the rest of a changing Europe! It didn’t mean that the politicians simply didn’t have to do anything. Our relationship with Europe was going to change regardless of we wanted that change or not. The only say in the matter that we had was to have some input into what that change would be.

The politicians looked at the reasons why the Irish public said ‘No’. They got guarantees put in place, they clarified some uncertainties. They then asked the Irish public again about whether they would accept the Lisbon Treaty. In a second referendum the Irish public overturned the decision of the first referendum when the majority of the Irish public voted ‘Yes’. It was democracy at work in a democratic country.
I can never understand why people say stuff like ‘the government bullied the people of Ireland into it’. The government and the vast majority of the elected T.D.s recommended and asked the Irish public to vote ‘Yes’. I didn’t feel bullied by the politicians. I felt it was okay for me to have my say and okay for me to vote anyway I choose.

I do agree that some reform at local level would not be a bad thing. I don't agree with "Each councillor would have to take up the role on a full time basis and not be able to take another job such as being a community welfare officer which is clearly a serious conflict of interest. Those in receipt of state pensions should have to forego them as long as they held the position of Councillor. Each Councillor should be based in their local area office for four days of the week dealing directly with the public on localised issues of concern. The local councillor would have the final say in getting things done". A local councillor can have a background from any walk of life, but just because he or she gets votes just not mean that he or she is competent to make the same decisions as the county manager who is usually a qualified engineer.

"With proper local government then national politicians can concentrate on running the country".

This is an ideal aspiration BUT creating change at local government will not necessarily bring this change about. People in Ireland have a culture of contacting a TD for everything, and as I have seen twice in the last 48 hours, people even contact TDs for things not in the remit of a TD. The national politicians are voted by people who insist in having things done at a local level. Really good national politicians can be voted out of power becuase they are not good at local issues. An example being Michael McDowall.

"The Seanad should also be abolished as it is only a glorified talking shop". I agree or it should be at least reformed in order that it provides a stronger balance to government.