Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will urgently review and amend the final guidelines on the governance of integrated local development companies and urban based partnership in view of the concerns expressed by many citizens active in the community sector regarding the reduction of representation of the social partners on partnership boards, restrictions on the terms of chairpersons and directors, the barring of Oireachtas Members from board membership and other issues of concern. [27916/07]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Arising from the joint Ministerial initiative on the review of local and community development structures the Government agreed a series of measures in January 2004 to improve arrangements under which community and local development initiatives are delivered and to improve cohesion and focus across various measures. This process is informed by the following guiding principles:

improving on the ground services

streamlining structures so as to avoid overlaps, duplication and undue administrative overheads

bringing transparency, co-ordination and improved control to the funding and operation of local and community development measures;

strengthening the democratic accountability of agencies and providers in this area.

The core objective of the process is to simplify and improve local delivery of programmes operated by my Department through the integration and alignment of local delivery structures. The intention is that for the future there will be one local development company in any given area and fewer local development companies overall. This will provide full county coverage and eliminate overlaps and previous fragmented arrangements.

Following exhaustive consultations with and between the local agencies to develop the most suitable configurations of groups, Government decided on revised areas of coverage for local development companies in March of this year. Subsequent consultations with stakeholders culminated in a meeting with the representative networks of local development companies (Comhar Leader na hÉireann, the Community Partnership Network and PLANET) on the 31st July. At this meeting, the networks agreed to the revised membership requirements for which I had secured Government approval. These new arrangements most notably included the provision of three additional seats for representatives of community and voluntary organisations on local development boards.

Given the importance of local development companies in their area of operation and the amount of public funds that they disperse, the Government is keen to ensure that they operate to the highest standards of corporate governance. In addition there are concerns about the size of boards and the transparency of board election/selection procedures leading, in turn, to concerns relating to the democratic legitimacy of such organisations and public accountability generally. While the number of reserved spaces on boards is reduced, this is in the context of smaller boards where the influence of particular directors cannot be diminished by boards of unlimited size. Boards will continue to have a mix of representation from local government, national social partners, statutory agencies and community and voluntary organisations. In addition further avenues of participation will be available through advisory councils.

In regard to the participation of elected representatives, the Government has decided that representation by elected members from local authorities including town councils is more appropriate to local development bodies in view of their specific local focus and area based perspective. In relation to T.D. (and Senators) I am considering ways in which they can be routinely kept informed of the work of the companies in their constituencies.

Governance guidelines have been drawn up by my Department in response to requests from the local development companies following extensive in consultation with stakeholders and their representative bodies. These reflect the Government decision and provide a template that enables the companies to operate to the highest standards of governance. The Guidelines provide a model of rotation in regard to the tenure of chairpersons and directors that aims to strike a balance between the need to refresh the board and to achieve reasonable continuity. For example, a Director may serve up to three terms as Director (i.e. may be appointed once and re-appointed twice) but can serve for only two consecutive terms.

Apart from some mandatory provisions relating to the size of boards and the selection and distribution of board members, companies are not required to follow the guidelines exactly once they can demonstrate to my Department that the highest standards of corporate governance will be observed.