Theresa Reidy: Ireland has weakest local government system in Europe

Voters should spare a thought for those who work or seek to work in a system that has been stripped of roles and responsibilities over the past century

If you get a Government representative on your doorstep during election campaigning, do not let the opportunity go, ask them what they are doing to empower local government.

It is hard to be motivated about the upcoming local elections. Ireland was ranked last out of 39 countries in a local autonomy self-rule index in 2016. Ireland was 36th out of 39 countries for its institutional capacity, 37th out of 39 for its policy scope, 36th out of 39 for policy discretion. The pattern was even worse on the financial indicators. Ireland spends a miniscule amount at local level and raises even less in revenue. The 2016 report, and many like it, do not make for comfortable reading: Ireland has the weakest system of local government in Europe.

The pattern of the last 100 years has been one of stripping roles and responsibilities from local government. Successive national governments have been obsessed with local government structures. Multiple reports and waves of reforms have almost always ended in abolition or amalgamation of different layers. Most recently, town councils were abolished in 2014 and local authorities in Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford were amalgamated. Powers have also been stripped away from local government; most health responsibilities were removed in 2005 with the establishment of the HSE, education was reorganised in 2015 with the creation of education and training boards, water services will finally be reassigned fully to Irish Water in 2026.

Many of these changes were important and well justified but there has been little effort to replace these functions. While most EU countries have been growing the provision of childcare and other social care services at local level, local government service provision is either static or going backwards in Ireland.

Our political and administrative cultures are a large part of the explanation for the weak local government. 

At independence, Ireland adapted the feeble system of local government created by the British colonial administration. Researchers that work on local government will often point to a deep suspicion of local decision-making among both political and administrative elites. Corruption, especially in planning and housing at local level, is a major stain and shapes views of local government, even now decades after the major problems were addressed. There is also the challenge that our civil and public servants are trained in the highly centralised power structures of Ireland, and there is an automatic presumption that central is best. In public debates, we do not acknowledge nearly enough how odd and imbalanced governance is in Ireland.

Ireland has a population of 5.1m people but just 31 local authority areas. That means that, on average, we have almost 165,000 citizens per local authority. This contrasts enormously with similar, small EU member states. With an almost identical population, Denmark has 98 local authorities and they have 60,000 citizens per municipality, on average. Portugal with a population of over 10m people has 308 local authorities and, on average, 34,000 people per municipality.

The picture is even worse when we look at the number of councillors that we elect. With just 949 councillors, each one is responsible, on average, for almost 5,400 people. However, there are deep disparities obscured by these averages, and councillors in the large urban centres of Cork and Dublin have much higher population ratios. Irish councillors are the most overworked in Europe. In fact, their workload is immense. In the last decade, many sitting councillors have decided to leave local politics, citing workload and poor pay.

The truth is that we need many more councillors. 

The size of the Dáil has been increased for the next general election but there has been no corresponding change for local government. Being a local councillor is a part-time job. Are they just supposed to work themselves into the ground or are they to do less for the people of Ireland? No one in central government has even bothered to discuss this seriously.

This is not meant to dissuade you from voting. Rather, it is to encourage you to spare a thought for the amount of work that incumbents have been dealing with and to support all those still choosing to put themselves forward to work for their communities. However, if you do get a Government representative on your doorstep, do not let the opportunity go, ask them what they are doing to empower local government.

Our most serious challenges in health and housing often have roots in disparate local conditions which were not fully appreciated when decisions were being taken. You only have to look at the appalling outcome of centralised decisions on access to accident and emergency services in the mid-west.

Directly elected mayor

However, the mid-west is also a lone bright spot on the local government horizon. Voters in Limerick will get to choose their first directly elected mayor on June 7. In 2019, voters in Cork, Waterford, and Limerick participated in local referendums on establishing directly elected mayoral positions in their areas. The sensible people of Limerick grabbed the opportunity, knowing that it held possibility. Foolishly in Cork and Waterford, the voters said no. Second referendums have been mentioned but not seriously. And the Government has already abandoned plans for a promised referendum to have a directly elected mayor in Dublin. The quick history of local government tells us that moments to improve the system are rare and should be seized immediately.

The new mayoral position in Limerick expands the structures and the powers by a ‘little bit’ that can be exercised at local level. It was disappointing but not surprising that more power was not devolved to the mayor. However, the mayor’s real power will lie in their direct election, and the ability that comes with that to speak on behalf of the people of Limerick with authority and legitimacy. The election is lively, mayoral posters are everywhere, and the local media are doing interviews and holding debates with all the contenders. Whoever wins, Limerick will win. Because Limerick will now have an extra voice in politics and that matters a great deal in our much under-resourced local government system.

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• Theresa Reidy is a political scientist at University College Cork. She is co-editor of ‘Politics in the Republic of Ireland’.