OPINION:Without bringing local government closer to the citizen, notions of a mayor for Dublin are meaningless, write CIARAN BYRNEand TOM KELLEHER
AS WE are launched seemingly headlong by John Gormley towards the new position of directly elected mayor of Dublin, there is an absence of debate on what exactly the Minister’s plans will mean for the citizens of the city and county.
From our perspective in Fingal, the first issue is that the proposed new role will undo the significant progress made through the abandonment of the sprawling Dublin county council in 1994 and its replacement with three councils, each closer to their local electorate. Their combined population exceeds that of the city and it is in these three council areas that much of the economic strength and, more importantly, the significant growth potential of the Dublin region is now based.
Rather than transferring responsibilities away from our over-centralised national public administration, Gormley’s approach to the new mayoral position dilutes the few powers still held by the four Dublin authorities and gives these to the proposed new office. This will undo 16 years’ work by the county councils in developing local identity and becoming close and answerable to local communities. Worse again, 10 years of on-the-ground work by the city and county development boards forging partnerships between public representatives, community groups, State agencies and business will be abandoned overnight as these are subsumed into a blunt regional mega-model.
Ireland already has a stated commitment to local self-government, one that the Minister seems to have forgotten. Ireland is a signatory of the European charter of local self-government of the Council of Europe, adopted by the Council of Ministers in 1985 and ratified by Ireland in 2002.
Subsequently we incorporated the status of local government into the Constitution, but failed to act or adopt the most fundamental principle underlying the charter – subsidiarity – which would mean that proposals would to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralised competent authority, closest to the citizen.
The current mayoral proposal does not just ignore this, it completely ignores article five of the charter, which demands a public consensus (possibly by referendum) before local authority boundaries are changed. Dubliners must ask themselves if they should be voting for a structure without first voting on whether the amalgamation and centralising of functions as proposed is what they want in the first place.
In support of the proposal we hear cited the experience of the office of mayor of London. The post of mayor of London cannot be transposed into an entirely different political context. The London borough council structure does not compare with that of the four Dublin authorities.
More importantly, and unlike here, it was established where significant regional services in transport, police and social policy already existed under the control of local government. Where is the mention of a comparable Dublin version of the London assembly that monitors and oversees the work of the mayor? In fact, the legislation will allow the Minister to subsume these powers of oversight into his own office.
Dublin local authorities already work closely together to provide drinking water, treat and manage waste water, manage waste, and plan for and provide transport, housing and integrated planning services. This model works and can improve and evolve effectively.
The proposal for a mayor of Dublin will make the office-holder beholden to the goodwill of national government. He or she will inevitably be viewed as irrelevant if their influence is confused or compromised by parallel existing structures. How will Dubliners explain why they have both a mayor and a lord mayor? Will they all be happy to:
- Abolish four development boards, replacing them with a single board to represent the combined interests of such a diverse city region?
- Confiscate and transfer finance and staff from each of the county councils to support and establish the office of city-based mayor?
- Have a mayor supported by a "board" that does not proportionately represent Dublins local authorities equally, favouring the city?
- See the mayor oversee the implementation of some of the regional planning guidelines affecting Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, where the mayor will have no authority?
- Have a mayor who will merely be consulted and not involved in decision-making on issues of integrated planning and transport for the Dublin region proposed by the National Transport Authority prior to their implementation as policy?
- See this mayor take back decision-making and policy-direction powers from the four authorities on water production, waste water treatment and waste management, and be subject to a direction from any Minister responsible for these services?
If we keep on this path the outlook is stark. The Minister’s proposal exposes the inadequacy of existing policy and structures that would otherwise lend this potentially significant office a singular influence in promoting partnership and uniting the region in a structure based on sound political and administrative foundations.
Politics can only be enhanced by the introduction of an office that delivers results close and relevant to the citizen. We have to find ways to integrate the good work, identity and membership of the four Dublin local authorities into an assembly to which the mayor must answer. This can only enhance existing local structures by giving them a wider voice in the bigger forum.
We have to change the national structures to enable transport for Dublin under the mayor to become a reality. We must introduce autonomous financing for local government as a priority. This does not require new taxes but the transfer of certain tax sources directly from central to local government.
We should transfer responsibility for school provision from central to local government, thereby ensuring their construction with housing and development locally. We can strengthen the successful experiment of the joint policing committee structure to bring the Garda and community closer together.
We should devolve enterprise development and training to local councils, while ensuring financial and administrative accountability for these vital functions so that they serve the real needs of local communities.
We must put into practice the principle of subsidiarity. If we fail to do this, as we seem determined to do with this proposal, politics and local government will be undermined further by parading ill-considered proposals.
Cllr Ciaran Byrne, mayor of Fingal, and Cllr Tom Kelleher, deputy mayor of Fingal, are both Labour Party representatives for Balbriggan/Swords