Dismal council system in need of radical reform
Every year for the last three years, the Environment Department has issued stern warnings to local authorities, insisting that they must keep strict control of their budgets.
At the same time, the councils' income from business rates and other charges has fallen.
Nobody can deny that in attempting to achieve fiscal rectitude they have a massive task.
But the results of such efforts as they have made, and the flimsy evidence of progress, are such as to make one doubt if they have approached the task with either basic competence or serious intent.
A survey by this newspaper finds that only three local authorities -- Cork County Council, Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council -- have succeeded in balancing their books.
This is intriguing in more ways than one because two other county councils, Dublin South and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, must equal or beat Fingal in opportunities to raise revenue.
Those less favourably placed have, unquestionably, too few sources and too few affluent inhabitants, but they have to accept the fact that more taxes are on the way and must be collected.
To date, the record is dismal. To make up for cuts in Exchequer funding, councils have turned to overdrafts and bank loans.
The councils themselves are owed in the region of €500m in unpaid charges.
And their own efforts to make savings show neither deep thought nor imagination. Playgrounds and libraries are traditional targets. Swimming pools and theatres are now said to be "on the brink".
But savings of this kind are usually trifling by comparison with the future costs of allowing infrastructure to deteriorate.
Meanwhile, the evidence of incompetence remains staggering.
It beggars belief to learn that several councils do not even keep a register of the property they own. Among the employees of Galway City Council are 32 who are owed more than a year's leave, and 11 others who have taken more than their allocation.
The litany could go on, but finding remedies matters more than laying blame.
The root cause of the trouble is irresponsibility, in more senses than one. Irish local authorities have too little power, and too little interest in the proper use of the powers they do possess.
Any reform of the system must address the key question of raising revenue. There is no shortage of taxation options. All of them will encounter ferocious opposition once proposed, but it must be firmly met.
There must be no repeat of the septic tank U-turn.
At the same time, the Government needs to engage in the tricky task of making rationalisation go along with democratisation. This too will be unpopular, but it is necessary. And ministers should not flinch from it in the midst of an economic emergency.
On the contrary, a time of crisis is the best possible time for daring new departures.
Irish Independent
