Call to decentralise power in institutions

POWER, not jobs, should be decentralised by government and vested in regional institutions, a business conference in Waterford heard yesterday.

Dr Eoin O’Leary from the Department of Economics at University College Cork, said the Government could risk an under-performance of the economy by following a “one-size fits all” approach to enterprise policy. He said an alternative approach, with power diverted to regional institutions, could prove more beneficial.

“It’s not decentralisation of public sector jobs that’s important, but the decentralisation of power,” Dr O’Leary suggested. “For Ireland to grow we need regional power to be devolved into regional centres.”

Dr O’Leary was addressing a conference organised by Waterford Institute of Technology and the Enterprise in Action (Enact) group aimed at stimulating debate about enterprise in rural Ireland.

The economist cited research which showed South East Ireland lagged behind other regions during the Celtic Tiger era, when manufacturing productivity halved. During the same period (1993-1999) living standards in the South East slipped to less than the national average.

“At the moment there is huge emphasis on addressing the infrastructural deficit, but in the future we also have to develop ways of supporting innovation,” Dr O’Leary said.

Regional policy has limited effect, he argued, because it is disjointed from enterprise policy.

“We need strengthened regional development agencies and for central government to work through those - to be a real agile government,” he said. At present enterprise agencies such as Forfás and the IDA work separately from local authorities and county councils and both are controlled by different government departments - Environment and Enterprise.

Dr O’Leary suggested regional institutions be established with elected members to run them but said he “didn’t see the political will” to follow through on this.

“The Government is sleepwalking into a top-down centralised approach and we must ask to what extent is that going to facilitate local innovation?” he asked.

A spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise said enterprise policy development has a strong regional emphasis. He said agencies such as the IDA “have a distinct regional development mandate” and regional presence.