Local authorities - Paying for our services

Two stories today — and the ongoing disintegration of rural and not so rural roads — illustrate the continuing financial crisis facing our local authorities.

Cork County Council has employed debt collectors to recover €1.8m in overdue refuse charges. Another local authority has begun to send invoices to the health authorities every time its fire service is called to help ambulances at the scene of an emergency.

Local authorities have been under-funded for decades and this untenable situation manifests itself in many ways — not least in the authorities’ inability to properly maintain water delivery services leading to a huge loss of drinking water through leaky pipes.

It is, unfortunately, an indication of our bizarre belief that we can have our cake and eat it. It is a justification for house and water charges because without them services will deteriorate further. It really is that simple.