Morris says councillors have no say anymore

Nenagh Independent councillor Seamus Morris has called for the restoration of two county councils in Tipperary, following a top level report which has found that the local government system in Ireland is among the least representative in Europe.

He said Tipperary was a prime example of how amalgamations of councils had failed, after two county councils, one in the north of the county and the other in the south, were abolished in 2014 and one new council for the entire county established to replace them.

Six town council and a borough council in Tipperary were also abolished, a move that Cllr Morris says the Government should consider reversing.

Cllr Morris said the abolition of the town councils had resulted in “a huge loss of revenue and democracy” for the towns where they operated, which included Nenagh, Thurles and Templemore in the north of the county.

He said the county council now covering all of the county was only operating in a manageable way because most of the 40 councillors elected to that body “have given up on trying to have a say in meetings.”

Cllr Morris said the chief executive officers of county and city councils had “almost full power now” and huge sums of money were being expended by councils on “unelected consultants”.

He said a Freedom of Information request he submitted revealed that Tipperary County Council had spent €11.2 million between 2019 and 2022 on consultants, even though it had its own qualified staff that could have done at least some of the work.

The system worked against people in full time employment getting involved in politics at local level as most council meetings were held on weekday mornings, “making it hard for full time workers to attend.”

Cllr Morris added: “The closing of town councils means that many fine local activists will not run for politics on local important issues, while a lack of funding for municipal districts is a severe restriction also, as is the centralisation of funding which makes Ireland a laggard in the EU.”

report

The Nenagh councillor made his comments after a new report compiled by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLREA) found Ireland’s system of local government was among the most limited, the most centralised, and the least representative in Europe.

The CLREA, a Council of Europe body, conducted a visit to Ireland earlier this year to examine the situation of local and regional democracy.

Findings published in its draft report, revealed by The Business Post, raised a number of concerns about the nature of Ireland’s local government system.

It found that at an average of 5,399 people per councillor, Ireland had the fewer councillors per capita than any other European country.

limited

The report found that the range of functions of Irish local government is “more limited than in practically all other EU countries”, in particular with regard to welfare functions.

It found Ireland’s local government was “far from complying with the principle of subsidiarity”, which requires that public responsibilities shall generally be exercised by those authorities which are closest to the citizens.

The Business Post also revealed that the investigation found an imbalance of power between the elected members and the chief executives.

The centralised administrative supervision of local government was “extensive and detailed”, according to the report, which also found that there were no signs that central supervision was about to be relaxed.

It found that local councils had very little of their own resources that they could use at their own discretion.