We’ve been hung out to dry
This was in keeping with the policy of the permanent government, who are in denial about the merits of communities making their own choices — different choices — including acting competitively with others, and the contentment such self-local-government gives to them, and their right to represent their communities. It was Fianna Fáil’s Minister, P Flynn, who commissioned the distinguished advocate of local government, Tom Barrington, to chair an advisory committee on Local Government (1991). No elected representative was on this committee, but managers and persons expected to advocate expenditure curtailment were there. Tom Barrington told me later, that his ‘riding instructions’ were to favour the county council. Administrative efficiency was paramount. Ironically, published figures show that the expenditure per employee in town councils (UDCs) was larger than that of county councils, affirming the former as the more efficient.
Barrington’s Report reproduced a Council of Europe table listing 31 common functions of local government showing which of 15 European states effected them (1981). Though some changes have occurred since, Ireland drew blank in 21 of the 31 items. No other state came remotely near this level of centralised government. Years later the OECD produced a similar table. Ireland, then as in 1981, was the sole country where local government didn’t run primary and most secondary schools. Barrington’s committee were divided as to the future of sub-county government. One option they mooted was elected district councils. We now have this, but simultaneously they have been denied autonomy: their every decision, including the powers of town councils they subsumed, is subject to the full county council. This is a mockery.
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