Is the new Local Democracy Taskforce a window of opportunity for real reform

By Olivia Ryan, The Drogheda Independent

The balance of power between council officials and elected councillors is set to come under the spotlight when the new Local Democracy Taskforce begins its work across the country this year.

Established just two months ago, the taskforce will look at reforming and strengthening local government, described as the “beating heart of our democracy” providing many of the essential services on which we all depend.

But what will it mean for councillors who sit on Louth County Council, representing urban and rural communities across the county?

The Argus and Drogheda Independent asked all 29 councillors in Louth for their views on the review of local government, if they feel it is necessary, and what changes should take place to ensure local government is operating at its best, and for the benefit of all citizens.

We also asked councillors about the impact of the last major reform of local government, which took place in 2014. It led to the abolition of Town and Borough Councils, replaced them with the current Municipal Districts, and centralised services through Louth County Council.

The responses of seven councillors from across the political spectrum, and a collective response from all seven Sinn Fein representatives in Louth paint a picture of frustration with the current system, a desire to be able to do more for their constituents, and shock at just how poorly Ireland’s local democracy ranks against other European countries.

‘Unelected local officials can spend our money and there is very little that voters can do to stop it. That is a recipe for disaster’

"I cautiously welcome any effort to strengthen local democracy and any measure that will ultimately benefit the people of County Louth. Ireland has the weakest system of local government in Europe based on a study by the Association of Irish Local Government in 2023. We have a very low number of councillors per head of population, we have the weakest set of powers, the smallest share of public expenditure. If local communities feel powerless it’s because so much decision making power has been taken away from us over the last 10-15 years. Since I was first elected in 2009 I have seen local government ripped apart; the abolition of town councils, the transfer of planning functions to An Bord Pleanála, the transfer of waste water and water to Uisce Eireann, the abolition of joint policing committees. The list is endless. I don’t see this taskforce as having the mandate, or the people, to deliver the radical reform of local government we need to deliver better services for local people.

We need to get rid of the “parish pump” and Nimby-ism from Irish politics but that doesn’t mean imposed solutions from the top. Dublin can tell a community what needs to happen in the national interest but still give us flexibility on how to make it happen, based on local needs. Dundalk and Drogheda are two of the largest towns in Ireland with populations of around 45,000. Over the next 10 years it is likely that they will both pass the 50,000 mark and become cities. We need to start planning now to create the local government structures and capabilities to guide their development.

But right now, local councillors can be too easily excluded from basic but long-term decisions. If the council wants to sell land or property then councillors need to approve, but if the council wants to buy land the council management can do so without involving councillors. It doesn’t sound very exciting until you realise that the reason the council owns a piece of land on the Point Road in Dundalk, and plans to build houses on a flood plain, is because they bought it at the height of the Celtic Tiger, and borrowed a lot of money to do so.

Unelected, unaccountable, local officials can spend our money and there is very little that voters can do to stop it. That is a recipe for disaster.

I feel very strongly about the reform of local government in 2014, as I was elected to Dundalk Town Council in 2009, was Chair of the Town Council in 2011/2012, and I have seen first hand how these reforms introduced by Labour and Fine Gael have really failed County Louth.

Not all town councils were equal in Ireland. Dundalk Town Council and Drogheda Borough Council were the largest in country. Theses councils were their own planning authorities, rating authorities and housing authorities developed over centuries for good reasons. There’s a big difference in the type of issues that affect the rural parts of Louth and our major urban centres. Our coastal communities and villages also have their own needs. The old system ensured that the routine issues affecting Dundalk and Drogheda could be dealt with by councillors representing those areas. This allowed the county council to focus more on the non-urban areas, and most importantly, the overall strategic development of the County. The system worked well, in the case of Drogheda for over 800 years, and didn’t need changing. Today, everything gets mixed together and there is a real loss of focus on the bigger strategic issues.

The abolition of these councils by Fine Gael and Labour, to save a tiny amount of money 10 years ago, didn’t benefit a single citizen of County Louth and should be reversed.”

“Local Government needs to be far more ambitious with the powers it has”

"While the Local Democracy Taskforce is a well intended I think local government needs to be far more ambitious with the powers it has. I have spoken many times when it came to making decisions on the local property tax that politics requires courage and disappointingly every year Louth has always found a reason to not change the LPT. I have always found constituents to be logical and thoughtful and if you have a reasonable discussion with constituents about what you can deliver then you can make an informed decision on things like the LPT. So we can blame legislation and blame the Custom House for a lack of powers, but if we don't have the courage to actually exercise the powers we do have, I think that's slightly double standards to be looking for more powers!"

"The current powers since 2014 are only 11 years old, sometimes in Ireland we have an obsession with reviews and reports and ultimately this leads to change fatigue setting in. In relation to Town Councils, I think one possible solution would be a function for specific Directors of Services for towns over a certain population. But ultimately, I think for us to be ambitious for Louth we have to look outwards and how our whole county is fighting for its share and the branding and promotion of the county rather than looking inwards at titles and structures."

"Give the people we vote for more muscle!”

"I would have concerns about the erosion of local government’s role, so I welcome the Taskforce. I hope it will address this by restoring decision-making power to councillors and municipalities on local matters, making councils more responsive and effective. I think a review of local democracy is long overdue. I’m cautiously optimistic it might yield meaningful results.

It’s worth noting that Ireland ranks 27th out of 27 EU member states on the Decentralisation Index. Centralised government often focuses heavily on the capital, and as a resident of Louth and Dundalk, I believe robust local government is essential. When you vote for a councillor, you should be electing someone with the ability to enact change.

Abolishing Town Councils was a backward step, as localities became absorbed into larger, more bureaucratic structures, increasingly bound by national policy. Most counties lost councillors, which meant there was less focus on localities and hyper-local issues. Arguably, Drogheda has felt this the most, or at least the dereliction issues it faces are an unfortunate coincidence.

From a democratic perspective, councillors are increasingly constrained by central government directives and ring-fenced funding, limiting their ability to act on behalf of their communities. Our powers are heavily restricted in areas like housing and water, and common-sense solutions—such as installing a speed ramp or crossing—can be delayed by national policies or bureaucratic processes.

It can be very frustrating to feel you can’t deliver or are being delayed in delivering for your constituents while you wait for a national project and an architect (who has only ever viewed your road on Google Maps) to come through.

I think essentially more devolved powers for councils, access to better funding and more input from elected representatives is what I would like to see. Otherwise, local elections become more of a democratic pageant. Councils need control over their own patch, not a begging bowl.

Sometimes there are very specific junctures in time when it comes to policy that might only happen a handful of times a year to make an input into the way the council works. And that’s not remarkably responsive to public sentiment.

To give one example, we’re months waiting on a ‘traffic calming policy’ to be produced, and until that comes out, we’re all sitting on our hands when it comes to pushing for new crossings and speed bumps in the municipal meetings.

A strong executive can help to deliver projects. Lurching too far in the other direction could bring other kinds of problems and delays. But in a very centralised authority, when the capital and policy are coming from Dublin, some big decisions can feel like they have bypassed Councillors. That can undermine democratic accountability. Give the people we vote for more muscle!

Overall Louth benefits from dedicated Councillors who work hard to maximise their impact. Greater discretion and clearer powers would allow Councillors to respond more effectively to community needs.

“We have little executive power or function and we need to strengthen councillors’ right to be consulted”

“As Mayor of Drogheda — Ireland’s largest town — I welcome the establishment of the Local Democracy Taskforce as a vital step toward addressing the longstanding imbalance in local governance in this country. For too long, towns like Drogheda have been expected to grow and deliver for their communities without the corresponding decision-making powers or financial autonomy enjoyed by local authorities across the rest of the EU.

In European terms, Ireland stands out — and not in a good way — for having one of the most centralised systems of government. This severely limits the ability of towns like Drogheda to respond effectively to local needs, invest in infrastructure, or shape their own future.

The Taskforce is a timely opportunity to deliver a meaningful shift in power from the centre to the local level. As Drogheda continues to grow, it deserves the same respect, representation, and resources as its European counterparts.

We should have the restoration of town councils with my belief that Drogheda should be the first to be restored. We are the largest town and arguably one that was particularly negatively affected by their abolition in 2014.

We have an award winning civic building and I would welcome a dedicated town manager with a ring fenced budget for Drogheda. With a town council, decisions on local services, amenities, and development projects can be made closer to the community. This could lead to more responsive and tailored policies that suit the Drogheda's heritage and needs.

I agree with the terms of reference that we need to rebalance the power dynamics between elected councillors and the CEO/directors of services. We have little executive power or function and we need to strengthen councillors’ right to be consulted and informed of executive decisions in a timely manner. This can happen in an ad hoc manner and enforcing it in a new policy can see a more collaborative and accountable process which will benefit local democracy.”

“Ireland ranks just above Hungary, Russia and Moldova on local democracy, a record I am not proud of”

“I am really fearful that this taskforce will become another talking shop and no real positive reforms will be implemented to ensure that we have a strong independent democratic Local Government within our country, this does not serve the people and we will find it difficult too find diverse and good people who wish to enter local politics when it is getting more difficult to achieve positive and transparent differences in our local communities.

I welcome the taskforce, however, I hope that it is not used as a road block to further erode the role of local councillors. Unless there is complete buy in from all bodies in government including all of central government there will be no change on foot of this taskforces recommendations.

An independent report commissioned by The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (CLRAE) in 2023 found Ireland has one of the lowest scores under the Local Autonomy Index (LAI), with Irish local government scoring a rank just above Hungary, the Russian Federation and Moldova ( Ireland ranks 36 out of 39 on local government autonomy index). Its certainly a record that I for one am not proud of.”

“People in local communities are not being represented properly - for example under the act members of the county council elected from a local electoral area become a member of the municipal district. The fundamental problem, however, is that they are not councils and are not legitimate local government corporate entities. There are no direct elections to the municipal districts and they do not have revenue-raising capabilities. As such, it can be argued that municipal districts are little more than glorified area committees of county councils. Town Councils were directly elected, and had statutory standing on budget and finance raising matters.

Furthermore the removal of the water services from local authorities to a new state body was another direct erosion of council’s autonomy and expertise on a state fundamental infrastructure that we can see has had catastrophic consequences to our development locally and nationally.

A Chief Executive is not elected and yet holds the deciding decision on all matters bar development plans, in my opinion this needs to be addressed."

Cllr. Kevin Meenan, Cllr. Eric Donovan, Cllr. Fiona Mhic Conchoille, Cllr. Debbie McCole, Cllr. Pearse McGeough, Cllr. Antoin Watters and Cllr. Sionnan McCann

“Municipal areas became a toothless tiger after powers were stripped away from them”

"The abolition of town councils has been an unmitigated disaster for Local Government and accountability.

“When Labour and Fine Gael abolished town councils in 2014 towns were left behind and abandoned and were not even able to administer a local budget. Municipal areas became a toothless tiger as powers were stripped away from them.

Labour and Fine Gael promised savings of between €15 million - €20 million a year and in 2017 our TD at that time, Imelda Munster, sought quantified data relating to those savings [but none was provided].

Anything that erodes the role of Local Government and leaves decision making or financial controls to Central Government is a matter of deep concern when you look at how the government is run.

There should be more devolved powers to local government and more input from elected representatives in budgetary matters. They are on the ground and are dealing with everything from illegal dumping and footpaths to vacant properties and homelessness. They are best placed to assess what is needed in their towns to have a pro-active approach to these issues rather than let them fester and deteriorate while central government in Dublin are building bike sheds and security huts.

There needs to be a rebalancing of power between elected representatives and the council executive but more importantly, a rebalancing between local and central government is needed and that is something that the Taskforce won’t discuss. That would be a key concern about the Taskforce.

Increased devolved powers for town Councils are important for local decision making and community involvement in those decisions. We cautiously welcome the new taskforce and we look forward to dealing with local issues at a local level. It will be good to be able to pro-actively deal with issues instead of having to refer to central government and go through a process of having to apply for specific funding streams to maintain our towns.”

‘Chief Executives have a lot of power and councillors have considerably less, this needs to be addressed’

“The Local Democracy Taskforce is very welcome as it is a great opportunity to address some of the issues that exist in Local Government in Ireland.

Ireland has one of the lowest rankings in Europe when it comes to defining democracy at local level. We are slightly above Russia, which says it all. Research indicates that Ireland's local authorities have fewer powers and less financial independence compared to their counterparts in other European countries.

The Reform of Local Government 2014 had a positive impact in some ways as it did away with duplication, for example area committees could only talk about areas in Drogheda that were in the county, while Borough Council meetings could only discuss areas of Drogheda within the Borough. Now the Drogheda Municipal District covers all the areas which is good, However the reform abolished the towns budget and administration staff which isn’t good.

Councillors should be given back powers to manage budgets and raise money, make us responsible for town development. Chief Executives have a lot of power and councillors have considerably less, this needs to be addressed.

The Taskforce should look at ways to bring the public into the democratic decision making process, for example by implementing a Participatory Budgeting process.”

‘There is a perception that the county councillors are only rubberstamping’

“The Government has established the Local Democracy Taskforce to reform local government, and I would welcome this initiative.

It is widely accepted that abolishing the old Town Councils diluted the power and influence of local government Individual town councils having a say on their bylaws and passing a budget for maintenance or infrastructure would better serve democracy.

I would like to see councillors have more power in budgetary matters and in selecting projects for investment in civil engineering improvements throughout the county. There is a perception that the county councillors are only rubberstamping the documents.

The housing crisis is the biggest challenge facing the Country at the moment, local government has a vital role to play in resolving this issue.

New planning guidelines are also required on the building of modular homes.

The Task Force has the remit to make recommendations to modernise local government, members of local authorities will be anxious to see the report and implementation of the recommendations of this task force.”