Mr. John Mulholland:

On behalf of the County and City Management Association, CCMA, I thank the committee for the opportunity to meet to discuss the role of local government in enabling community inclusion for people with disabilities. As the Chair stated, I am joined by my colleagues, Mr. Michael Rainey, interim chief executive of Carlow County Council and Mr. Michael Nicholson, director of services at Wicklow County Council.

As the committee will be aware, local authorities play an essential leadership role in the democratic, social, economic, and cultural development of local areas. City and county councils provide amenities, services and infrastructure designed to improve local areas as inclusive places to visit and in which to live and work.

A number of structures are currently in place that the local government sector utilises to consult with key stakeholders including people with disabilities. These include public participation networks, PPNs, strategic policy committees, SPCs, local community development committees, LCDCs and housing and disability steering groups, HDSGs.

In addition, in support of their statutory responsibilities local authorities have prepared disability strategies and have appointed access officers and disability and inclusion committees. Housing and disability steering groups have also been established under the national housing strategy for people with a disability for the delivery of the strategy at a local level.

I will speak briefly on public participation networks. These have been established in all local authority areas, supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development. The PPNs empower and assist groups to participate in decision-making by providing a nominating structure for community and voluntary interests and a link for the local authorities to connect, collaborate and consult with community groups.

Strategic policy committees were established in 2001. They bring together elected members and people who work with social, economic, cultural, and environmental bodies to develop and review policies related to council services. SPCs prepare the groundwork for policies, which are then decided on by the local authority. They have a major role in assisting and advising the council on functions and strategy of a statutory nature. The county development plan is a primary example.

The local community development committees were established in 2014. The purpose of the LCDCs is to develop, co-ordinate and implement a coherent approach to local and community development. Drawing on the expertise and experience of the public and private sector and local organisations, their aim is to provide effective and efficient services to citizens and communities, particularly those most in need of those services.

Housing and disability steering groups have been established in each local authority under the national housing strategy for people with a disability. The main objective of the HDSGs is to facilitate disabled people to live independently with the appropriate choices and control over where, how and with whom they live. The groups have membership from the council and key stakeholder groups representing the needs of people with disabilities. The examples are listed in our opening statement.

Local authorities consult extensively with the public in the formulation of all their key strategies or plans, including corporate plans, county development plans, local area plans, local economic and community plans, town master plans and economic strategies. In each case there is a public consultation process, which allows all members of the public the opportunity to make formal submissions for consideration. This is a very inclusive and transparent process. In addition, many local authorities have recently included public consultation portals on their websites to facilitate easier review of documents, submissions and plans. It is also worth highlighting that within the planning application process, including Part 8 applications, there is opportunity for groups to make submissions for consideration. In this way, they can shape developments and projects being delivered in the community, including public realm projects.

I will refer briefly to co-ordination and community development. I have given three examples, which are the healthy Ireland framework, the Sláintecare healthy communities programme and the healthy Ireland cities and counties programme, which are active in a significant number of local authorities. The Sláintecare healthy communities programme is a collaboration and partnership between the local authority, the HSE and local communities in 19 identified disadvantaged areas to influence resources and infrastructure that enable healthier outcomes. Each designated area has a local development officer to support and work with the local communities, alongside the many community and statutory groups, to ensure the communities are sustainable places in which to live.

I am conscious of the time so I will take the appendices as read. These deal with some of the day-to-day operations and services provided by local authorities and include an extract from a service indicator report from 2021, which demonstrates the social inclusion pillar, or college, and the number of people who come forward to be represented on the PPN. I will conclude at this point. I welcome any questions.