The merging of local authority management, an extension of toll charges to national roads and extra levies on those who do not pay their motor tax online are among a series of proposals aimed at saving over €500 million in the State’s 34 local authorities.
The measures, contained in a report by the Local Government Efficiency Review Group, and approved by the Cabinet at its meeting in Farmleigh on Wednesday was published today.
The group is informally called An Bord Snip Eile and was chaired by Pat McLoughlin, the former Health Service Executive (HSE) deputy chief executive and now chief executive of the Irish Payment Services Organisation.
In all, it made 106 recommendations totalling €511 million in efficiencies.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who commissioned the report, is expected to begin implementing some of its recommendations almost immediately. While no reduction in number is envisaged for the 29 county councils and the five city councils, the group recommends far-reaching changes in organisational structures.
In an effort to reduce payroll costs, it argues for the reduction in the number of city and county managers from 34 to 24; directors of service from 240 to 190; and the number of senior and middle managers by at least 15 per cent. This change would in effect mean that some local authority managers would be in charge of two councils.
Mr O'Loughlin said this proposal had the greatest scope to generate savings and could lead to better local governance.
He told RTÉ Radio that some of the changes could be implemented quickly as some county and city managers were on fixed term contracts and because the Croke Park agreement allows for deployment of personnel elsewhere in the public service.
The group has also recommended that tolling charges be extended from motorways to national roads. It has argued this would be consistent with Government policy on the environment by incentivising road users to use other transport. It would also allow a stream of revenue for local councils to invest in local roads.
While the group has said the distribution of the tolling booths should be equitable, placing them on national roads as well as motorways would be seen as controversial and politically unpopular.
Mr O'Loughlin said the new tolls could be used to fund infrastructure developments on local and national roads and could prove to be good for the environment.
Conor Faughnan of the AA said the idea of placing tolls on regional roads was absurd and that placing an extra cent tax on fuel would be a far more efficient proposal.
Fine Gael's transport spokesman Simon Coveney said the introduction of more road tolls was an inefficient and inappropriate way of collecting more tax. He said Ireland had a population which is spread thinly across the country and which had a poor public transport infrastructure.
"The capital cost of putting new tolls in place and the cost of staffing them is not an efficient way to collect what is effectively a new tax," Mr Coveney said.
Labour Party transport spokesman Joe Costello said the proposal for road tolls on national roads in addition to motorways was not sustainable and that it was a "stealth tax" on families.
"This is a tax on ordinary citizens going about their daily business. It is also a tax on transport business. There is minimal public transport of goods throughout the country as the rail network only links the major cities. Road transport costs will increase and so will the cost to the consumer," he said.
The report has also suggested that a handling fee be introduced for processing motor tax payments that are made in person or by post rather than online. This, the report concluded, would recognise the much higher staff costs of manual processing.
It has also called for an end to the “off-the-road” facility in respect of motor tax, which allows car owners to self-declare vehicles as not in use.
In other recommendations, the group says social housing rents due to local authorities should be deducted directly from social welfare payments to reduce overheads associated with revenue collection.
It says housing sections within local authorities should be reconfigured reflect the more varied sources of housing supply.
On the financial side, the group recommends improved sharing of resources between local authorities, including the internal audit services.
It says a single payroll system should be implemented for local authorities in the short term.
The group found the number of senior managers in Dublin and Cork cities was noticeably high compared to other local authority areas.
It suggests a review be carried out over six months to examine how the numbers at these grades in both cities could be reduced by 15 per cent. The group also advocates a raft of shared services, including fire services; homelessness services; motor tax and technical support.
Several other revenue-raising possibilities are proposed including increases in planning costs. The efficiency group, first mentioned in last December’s budget, was set up shortly afterwards by Mr Gormley.
The other members were Donal McNally, second secretary general of the Department of Finance; John O’Hagan, professor of economics at TCD; former county manager John Quinlivan; Ian Talbot, chief executive of Chambers Ireland and Geraldine Tallon, secretary general of the Department of the Environment.
