Ireland

Review of Public Administration

Study Visits

Study visit to Ireland

Background

Under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001 a single, common legislative code applies to all local authorities.
Local authorities are known as county, city or town councils (and borough councils in certain cases):
  • 29 County Councils (there are 26 geographical counties but the county of Tipperary is divided into two administrative counties and the county of Dublin is divided into three administrative counties).
  • 5 City Councils (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick)
  • 5 Borough Councils (Drogheda, Wexford, Clonmel, Sligo and Kilkenny)
  • 75 Town Councils/Commissioners.
In addition there are eight Regional Authorities that are supposed to coordinate some of the County/City and sub county activities. Two Regional Assemblies also exist primarily to administer EU funding.
The 114 local authorities have 1,627 elected members.
Council populations can vary from 25,000 (Leitrim) to over 293,000 (Cork).
The County Council controls its administrative area but within this there may be a Borough or Town Council, which carries out a representational role for the town along with a range of local government functions.
Budget allocation varies considerably between Councils and can range from IR£11 million (Carlow County Council) to IR£245.5 million (Dublin City Council).
There are almost 30,000 employees; Dublin City employing the most with over 6,000.
Total population 3,917,336(1). Total local authority expenditure IR£1,627.6m(2) and total staff employed circa 30,000

Functions

The legislation states that the functions of a local authority are:
  • to provide a forum for the democratic representation of the community
  • carry out functions conferred by the National Government
  • carry out any ancillary functions
  • to take such action as necessary to promote community interest.
County and City Councils are the mainline providers of local government services. The 80 sub-county authorities carry out a varying range of local government functions and a representational role for the town. The main functions undertaken by County/City Councils (and Boroughs in some cases, usually in conjunction with the County Council) are:
  • housing
  • planning/development
  • roads
  • water supply and sewage
  • environmental (including waste management, pollution, rivers, lakes)
  • recreation facilities and amenities
  • arts, libraries, cultural, museum.
  • fire and emergency
  • burial grounds
  • community development.

Reserved and executive responsibilities

Responsibilities are divided into Reserve functions and Executive functions. The Reserve functions, which are the responsibility of Elected members, include:
  • adoption of annual budget
  • decisions relating to the borrowing of money
  • making and revising of development plans and byelaws
  • adoption of building programmes.
The Executive functions are the responsibility of the County Manger and relate to the day-to-day operations of the council. These include:
  • employment of staff
  • property management
  • planning decisions
  • administration of council affairs.

Council structure

A key element of the Act was to introduce a partnership model for County/City Councils via Strategic Policy Committees (SPCs). Chaired by an elected member they comprise both councilors (elected) and sectoral/community (non elected) interests. The Government Minister (via Local Government Division) issues guidelines re the establishment of SPCs. Similar arrangements apply for Towns.
The Chairman of the Council along with the chairs of the SPCs form a Corporate Policy Group which is involved in the preparation of the corporate plan and annual budget.
The legislation also provides that City/County Councils may establish as statutory Committees to deal with particular functional areas such as Planning, Leisure, Environmental Services, etc. In addition the Council can establish Area Committees for a local electoral area. The Area Committees may be authorized to spend small amounts of money, for example, in establishing playground areas or environmental maintenance. A local authority may invite people who are not councilors to sit on the Area Committees.
There is statutory recognition for County/City Development Boards that bring relevant players together to draw up a strategy for the economic, social and cultural development of the area.

Finance

The Councils are heavily dependent on central government for revenue budget and are in essence spending authorities. A small percentage of their budget is determined locally and the balance gathered from fees and charges levied for Council services and rates may be levied from commercial business.
Capital monies are available from the National Government, European Union and the council can also borrow money within specific guidelines issued by the Central Government.

Strategic management initiative

Local Government organizations are required to demonstrate managerial and service delivery efficiency and effectiveness through their Strategic Management Initiative. This is comparable to Best Value in Northern Ireland

Unique features

  • Councils are elected for a term of five years.
  • A comprehensive general ethics framework applies to both Members and staff.
  • Councilors receive a salary which can be enhanced via special responsibilities allowances or emoluments for appointment to outside bodies.
  • There is a view that this provision is attracting ‘professional’ politicians.
  • Plans to introduce direct election of Chairmen have been scrapped.
  • The current arrangement, which allows Dual mandates at the National and Local level is set to end in 2004 at the next local government election. However, a Councillor can be a member of both the County/City Council and the Borough Council.
  • The Local Government Commission deals with matters such as boundaries, number of elected members assigned to each area, alterations of number of members, applications for the establishment/dissolution of a town council.
  • The Local Appointments Commission appoints County Managers on fixed term seven-year contracts. This can be extended to ten years. The Minister can alter the tenure.

Implications

From the visits and discussions it is clear that the relationship between National and Local Government needs to be clearly defined and understood by all parties.
There is also a need to ensure that any intermediate tier (e.g. Regional Assemblies) need to have a meaningful role and the support of both the national and local administrations.
The new system of governance supports the engagement of civic society in a manner not unlike that used in other parts of the European Union on a partnership basis. The desire to develop arrangements that can integrate a range of public services is very strong through the Development Boards and such an approach may be worthy of consideration as part of the proposals arising from the Review.
The delineation of reserved and executive powers is also an important element in the system and may be a useful balancing check for any new system in Northern Ireland. However the need for mature professional and personal relationships between the County Manager and the Council cannot be underestimated and is predicated on a need for successful performance.
Councils do have a degree of flexibility in how they deliver the services required and this includes the power of collaboration with others. This may have important implications for the NI Executive and in particular the need to ensure the Programme for Government has widespread support and ownership from all levels of Government and is successfully implemented across the province.
The inevitable involvement of NI Ministers in much of the delivery of public services for which they have some accountability could lead to conflict between the various levels of democratically elected representatives and the extent of delegated freedom to do anything different from the Programme for Government must be clarified and relevant funding arrangements put in place.
The personal and professional relationship between officers of local government and the civil service must also be sufficiently mature and clear. The need to ensure the expectations of the central government are tempered by realistic assessments of resource availability to deliver is important. The development of agreed and Performance Management process or monitoring arrangement may be necessary.
This diagram is representative of Meath and may not apply to all councils
(1) Per 2002 Preliminary Statistics CSO
(2) 1999 Figures (Taken from DOE and Local Govt Website)