Directly Elected Mayor for Dublin short changes commuter belt counties

Minister fails to deliver the radical reform he himself promised.

Cllr Catherine Murphy has sharply criticised the announcement that the directly elected Dublin Mayor will exclude the cities  natural hinterland – which is ironically often referred to as Dublin’s  commuter belt.    One function the new Mayor will have is to  chair the Dublin Transportation Authority,   the geographic region of which   has already been set down in law,   in addition to Dublin it  includes counties Meath,  Kildare & Wicklow (Mid East Region).   For strategic land use planning again Dublin and the Mid East Region virtually operate as one unit.    The Minister’s announcement adds to the already complicated array of bodies that lack the necessary cohesion for Dublin and its hinterland to operate as an effective City region.  

City regions can bring about both economic and social  benefits –  waste management,   public transportation,   delivery of school buildings,   planning etc. can all function effectively at this level,   while a region of this size  can achieve efficiencies in the area of procurement and is large enough to operate as an economic entity.    On this occasion the Minister has added to the piecemeal approach that has dogged  local government reform for more than 30 years.  “I believe the Minister is misreading both the public demand  and public  acceptance for change that would bring about a more  effective form of governance."   When Minister Gormley himself embarked on the process of local government reform he announced it  would be  “one of the largest reforms ever to occur in how local government works in Ireland”.  What he has delivered is a damp squib.

His second failure relates to the sub county tier.   There appears to be  common agreement,  within local government circles,  that the one successful reform has been the introduction of area committees,   these have  a direct relationship between the citizen and the elected representative.   That should have been built on.   The following towns have been seeking their own town authorities,  Celbridge, Carrigaline, Maynooth, Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington, Ashbourne, Rush and Kildare Town,     all are large and growing, suburban or dormitory towns,  all are demanding some control over their own affairs.  These towns  are paying the price because of a political reluctance to  abolish town council’s  in settlements that no longer have sizeable populations,  some with  less than 1000 inhabitants.  

It is high  time that we considered radically  remodeling our local government system in a way that reflects modern Ireland.   What  that could mean is  moving towards a district county tier which would operate within the  regional tier and  would involve phasing out the County Council system.   That of course would inevitably lead to either Seanad reform or indeed its abolition given that 43 of the 60 Senators are currently elected by County and City Councillors.

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Posted by catherinemurphy on May 16, 2009. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.