Victor Boyhan: Calls for More Power to Local Government

Thank you, Chair Herlach, at the very outset, I want to welcome the Minister here and thank him for coming to deal with this important commencing matter. I'd also like to acknowledge and thank the Chair Herlach, Gerry Buttermore, for facilitating me with selecting this commencing matter today. Minister, and I know those in here would know, I have always made one of my key objectives in politics and have adopted the slogan of more power to local government, more power to its councillors. And I unashamedly say that. I've always worked for that. I will continue to work for it as long as I'm in this House, because I think it's crucially important. I am myself, as many people in here were, served in local government, so I understand the importance and the significance of local government, but also the importance of subsidiarity and making decisions at local government. I would like to raise the issue here, Minister, in relation to the Congress of local regional authorities for the Council of Europe, who unanimously adopted a report at our plenary meeting in Strasbourg just nearly over a year ago, in which they raised very serious issues and cited that Ireland had been found to be compliant with only eight out of the 20 principles of the European Charter of local self-government. So I'm keen to hear, Minister, what progress has been made in one year. The European Charter of Local Government aims to protect and to promote the rights of local and regional authorities across Europe. The Independent Report stated, and as you well know, that Ireland remains one of the most centralised countries in Europe in relation to local government and the subsidiarity of the issues around local government and the principles and policies in relation to local government. The report sets out a series of principles and standards that member states are expected to adhere to, ensuring effective local self-government and decentralisation of powers. Just to point out a few key issues in relation to this report, Minister, the Council of Europe expressed concerns in relation to the following. One, limited democratic decision-making powers. Two, the imbalance in power between elected councillors and chief executives and local authorities. Three, the democratic deficit in making decisions. And this was central to many of their concerns in their report. Four, the insufficient financial resources and autonomy of our local authorities and how that impacts our locally elected councillors in carrying out their functions. Five, very limited discretion for councillors in relation to their own local authority finances. And surely that's an issue that needs to be addressed. Six, the lack of financial autonomy was identified as a key obstacle, I quote, a key obstacle to effective local government and local government administration. Ireland having the most centralised system in local government in Europe has been set out here. The report concludes that Ireland is far from compliant with the principles of subsidiarity, which I talk about, and it requires decision-making. And we all know what subsidiarity means. It's about making decisions at the local level. So, Minister, I'm keen to hear what progress has been made on this. There's been a lot of work done in the Shannon Local Government Committee here. We've done a lot of work. A lot of work has been done by the ALAMA and the AILG, the Association of Local Government, and their members. So, I think it's really important that we address the shortcomings in relation to this. And I'm really here, Minister, to articulate the concerns of the members of these councillors and their representative body organisations. They want to see greater powers. They want to see subsidiarity. They want to see more functions. And it is with some regret, I say, this government and previous governments over the last 20 years have eroded the functions and powers of councillors across all local authorities. I have continuously advocated and put numerous amendments to legislation over my last eight years in this House, made them have simply been blocked and have been stopped. But we will now, in the next coming weeks, have opportunities to go out on the ground, meet our electorate, and articulate those concerns. And for that reason, Minister, I'm keen to hear your views on how we're going to progress the commitments that the Irish government made to address the shortcomings that have been identified in relation to this report. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Boyhan. Minister, you're welcome to the House. Thank you, Chair. And thanks to Senator Boyhan for raising this matter and for his continued interest in local government. So, as it happens, the monitoring delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will travel to Dublin on the 14th of November for a post-monitoring dialogue on their 2023 monitoring report. I'm therefore grateful for the opportunity to come before the House today on behalf of the Minister of State for Local Government and Planning to provide an update on Ireland's progress towards full compliance with the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The recommendations of the 2023 monitoring visit as adopted by the plenary meeting of the Congress last October have helped us to identify areas in which we are achieving, as well as areas where more needs to be done. The government is committed to this process and, as the report acknowledges, Ireland has made significant progress since the visit of previous monitoring delegation in 2012, most notably through the provisions of the Local Government Reform Act of 2014. The reform of local government in Ireland is an evolving process. The Local Government Reform Act of 2014 was an important step in that evolution and the introduction. From this year, of a directly elected mayor with executive functions in Limerick, with the potential for other local authority areas to vote to follow suit, is another key reform milestone. The mayor of Limerick, who has been elected for a five-year term, has taken some executive functions from the former role of chief executive. The mayor also has new functions and responsibilities, particularly in relation to long-term strategic development of Limerick. Crucially, the new office of mayor recognises the role of democratically elected councillors and continues to exercise their reserve functions. In the performance of his role, the mayor is therefore fully accountable to the elected council and not just the electorate every five years. An important feature of the Act to establish a directly elected mayor in Limerick is that there are regular statutory consultations between the mayor and national government, which meets one of the recommendations of the Congress' report. With regard to the report's recommendations to broaden the scope of local authority functions, functional areas and services currently under the responsibility of local government include social housing and homelessness, land use planning and transport. The 2014 reforms introduced new economic and community development functions to local government. More recently, vital statutory roles in relation to climate action and maritime area planning, among others, have also been assigned to local government. These are substantial functions assigned to local government, and the success of local authorities in managing these has been fundamental to the state's ability to manage its response to both COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine humanitarian response, and the integration of thousands of new arrivals into communities around Ireland. In all, local authorities deliver over 1,100 services, working in partnership with some 30 central government bodies. With regard to the report's findings in relation to the financial independence of local government, the funding system that applies to local government in Ireland is a complex one, and arguably the report has not correctly reflected this reality. There are references in the report to the local property tax being the only source of locally generated income that can be used for local priorities. This is not correct. Commercial rates, goods and services, and local property tax income are all used to fund local authority services, including planning, public lighting, provision of fire services, and libraries. The elected members have, for the most part, discretion to determine the level of income from goods and services. The adoption of a balanced budget is probably the single most important duty that the elected members are called upon to carry out each year. To achieve that balance, the members must make informed and necessary choices to balance the level of service provision having regard to both the needs and resources available. I'll continue in my second. Thank you, Minister. Senator Veyne. Thank you very much for how you've addressed and outlined some of the issues. I suppose really the key ask for me here today is that the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe identified in their report, which was sent to government. I so happen to sit on the Joint Roox Committee on Housing and Local Government and Planning, so I'd be also familiar with a bit of the background of what's going on in terms of the department in relation to these responses. But I suppose what would be helpful as some state minister, and I know it's not your direct department, if we could have a sort of written response or memo from, you know, detailing the outstanding, 12 outstanding issues. There was eight, there was 20, and there was concern about 12, if we could have some sort of response. But it is, and I know you're very supportive of local government and local democracy and subsidiarity, it is about more parts of local government, more parts of its elected members, its councillors. It is about the key principle of subsidiarity, and I think that's really, really important. And what I'd like to see from this discussion here today is a more detailed response. And I welcome, and I wasn't aware that the Monetary Committee was coming in on the 14th of November, and I think that's welcome, but I think it would be important to have a sort of detailed response to those issues in advance, and certainly, if there are misunderstandings in relation to this report, that all parties should be pulled together and said, look, what's factually correct? Because you pointed out some anomalies or some concerns. So it's important that the Congress also understand the complexities of local government finance and how those decisions are advised. But I want to thank you for coming in here, and I would ask, if you could convey to the Department, if we could have a memo on the issues that are in dispute, and let's see how we can work together to make progress. Thank you. Senator Boyd, Minister. Thanks. Also to add that there are robust governance structures in place at local government based on legislation and good practice. All the local authorities have an internal audit unit and an audit committee chaired by an independent expert. There are also opportunities to further strengthen the powers of locally elected members in respect of their primary oversight and governance role for local authorities and the Department of Housing and Local Government and Heritage. We'll continue to engage with councillor representative bodies and the sector in respect of that. Also, we'd like to note that the report's finding that financial conditions for elected members have improved, although the finding that Ireland is only partly in compliance with the Charter in this regard is disappointing. Since 2021, a number of very significant improvements in the terms and conditions for councillors have been introduced and indeed are ongoing. In terms of the remuneration alone, elected members have seen their annual remuneration payment rise by over 60% to 30,274 since 2021. The Government has also aggressively promoted the balanced participation of women and wider diversity in local government and reduced barriers to participation. The introduction of maternity leave in 2022 and additional maternity-related sports in 2023 is another action that we'd like to point to. And I'll have the Department send you the memo that you're looking for, Senator. Thank you, my motion. Thank you.