Written answers

Thursday, 17 November 2016

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Local Government Reform

Photo of Barry CowenBarry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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38. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on whether town councils should be restored; his further views on whether there is sufficient local democracy and well-functioning administration in large towns here; and if he is examining proposals to implement new administrative bodies for large towns in the national planning framework strategy. [35468/16]

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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82. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to establish town councils for towns with a significant population and for the restoration of former town councils in general. [35233/16]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 and 82 together.

The decision to replace town authorities with a new model of municipal governance under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 was designed primarily to strengthen local government within counties and to address widely acknowledged and long-standing weaknesses and anomalies in the previous system, including divided administration between town and county authorities, for example, in relation to matters such as planning, rating and charges.

Municipal districts now cover the entire territory of each county, reflecting European norms, removing outdated boundaries and ending the anomaly of small towns having municipal status and dual representation, while some larger centres and rural areas lacked any sub-county governance. As well as creating a more rational and comprehensive structural arrangement, the new system enables more effective and community-focused decision making and implementation. Under the new arrangements, there is full integration of local authority resources across each county and elimination of duplication both in administrative and electoral terms.

More effective democratic representation and local decision making is provided by the new system in which a wide range of local functions are devolved to the elected members at district level with more strategic matters decided by the plenary county. Unlike the uneven patchwork of separate town councils with outdated boundaries which it replaced, this is a comprehensive sub-county system, with membership in common between district and county levels, rational allocation of functions between levels, and a single administrative and operational structure.

In 2015, which was the first full year of the revised local government structures, a broadly based Advisory Group was convened to carry out a review of their operation, in conjunction with a Local Government Forum for engagement with the Association of Irish Local Government. Feedback from these deliberations and the results of surveys of local authority members and chief executives, indicate that the revised structures are generally operating well but will need more time to bed down fully. The results of this operational review will provide a key input to the consideration of issues in the preparation of a report for Government and the Oireachtas by mid-2017, pursuant to the Programme for a Partnership Government, on potential measures to boost local government leadership and accountability and to ensure that local government funding, structures and responsibilities strengthen local democracy, including the issue of town or borough council status.

Initial scoping work in relation to this report is being undertaken in my Department, and will identify in greater detail the specific issues and options which will fall to be addressed and the approach to be followed in relation to consultation. Decisions will be a matter for the Government and the Oireachtas, as appropriate, following consideration of the report.

Separately, and in line with the PPG commitment, the development of the National Planning Framework is underway and will take into account all of the relevant inputs and statutory requirements.  It would be inappropriate at this early stage to comment on the likely content of the Framework, until sufficient preparatory and consultative work has been undertaken.

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