Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A time of proposed change is a good time to reflect in general on the workings of local government, its status, its strengths, its weakness and its place in Irish political culture and life generally.

Of course, understanding the values and merits of local government is not helped by the opinions of some sectors if our society. I refer in particular to certain journalists, certain statutory bodies, such as the ESRI, and some academics who write on the topic of local government. Many individuals in these spheres of life, in trying to understand local government, limit themselves to commenting based on formal documents such as various Local Government Acts that were passed 20, 30 or 40 years ago and reading books on local government. Such an approach to uncovering and discovering what local government is really about has very limited value and is a very poor guide to the operation of local government in practice.

To really understand how local government works and how valuable it is in improving the life of local communities, rather than reading academic reports they would be much better off to study how an effective local authority member operates locally. That would be a much better pursuit for these academics than searching through academic tomes and volumes or various reports that are so detached from the real world in which most people live.

Let us take an imaginary city councillor standing at his or her hall door. As he or she looks up or down his or her street everything he or she sees is within the ambit of local government.

The councillor looks at the footpath and checks whether the surfaces are smooth and trip free, at the road and street surfaces to see are they broken or do they have potholes. He or she looks at the trees. Are trees missing or broken? He or she looks at street lighting and checks whether all these things are fit for purpose. If they are not he or she can do something about it, can rectify repair or replace them. Let us say that our imaginary city councillor leaves the front door and walks to the local park. Is the park safe? Is it pleasant? Is it clean? Is there a playground? Are the trees and flower areas being maintained? Are the football pitches grassed and marked? Is there a good enclosed five-a-side pitch? The councillor proceeds to the local shopping area and checks whether the public realm is pleasing to the eye. Is it attractively laid out? Is parking available and accessible?

The local councillor has a key role in providing for and maintaining these significant local community facilities. He or she can go to the local library and see if it is properly stocked with books and all the other facilities that local libraries now provide, or to the swimming pool, or the new arts centre. What makes communities work and what makes places into communities is to a huge extent the outcome of local government. In the case of each and every one of these local services the role of the city council is uppermost and the role of the local councillor working with his or her community and with the local managers is at the centre of that endeavour. The role of the council and the councillor has been critical to the success of more recent community structures such as the local employment services, partnerships and drugs task forces. All of this activity and provision is linked and locked into the role of the council within which councillors play a critical part, working alongside their managers and liaising with them.

On the question of power and influence I was on Dublin City Council for 20 years. In that time no city manager ever said to me that I did not have the power or the place to make a request for something in my community or to ask for such a thing to be done. I never heard a city or local area manager talk in that kind of language. Not having formally stated power does not come into the question. Influence counts more than power. Influence more than power makes Irish local government work for the councillor and for the community he represents. The managers are on the same mission as the councillors, to uplift and improve communities. That is their common concern. One cannot operate without the other. They have shared objectives. Their one common enemy is lack of money, not identifying who has power or influence or whether one has more power than the other. At a time when we are thinking about change we should reflect on what we already have and see considerable merit in it, rather than condemn it or abandon whole segments of local government provision as it stands.

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