Madam, - Your paper's tribute to the outgoing Dublin City Manager highlights the failure of local government in Ireland today. While the praise for John Fitzgerald is no doubt deserved, it should have been a directly elected Mayor of Dublin who provided "civic leadership" over the past 10 years and not an appointee of the Public Appointments Commission.
Local government needs urgent reform. Councillors are reduced to acting as lobbyists on behalf of their constituents as their powers have been steadily diluted since the first city manager was appointed in 1930.
Councillors need to have their powers returned to them and each council should be headed by a directly elected, full-time mayor/cathaoirleach with executive powers. Town and city managers should be left to manage and enact the policy decisions of the elected members and carry out the instructions of the mayor/cathaoirleach.
The ideas that local government is too important to be left to local councillors and that the local electorate cannot be trusted to elect responsible local representatives is a myth. It is in local government that political parties find future TDs and the same electorate that elects councillors also elects TDs.
Local Councillors are directly accountable to the people; managers are accountable to no-one but their own peers. Without accountability there is no democracy.
I wish John Fitzgerald all the best with his future.
- Yours, etc,
Cllr KEITH MARTIN, Westport Town Council, Westport, Co Mayo.