Sir, - Having achieved "freedom" after centuries of struggle, how is it that ordinary Irish people have still to endure a dictatorship at local government level? County and city councillors are "democratically" elected by the people. However, in the very areas which most affect the day to day lives of their electorate, they have no real power, as they can only "advise" the person charged by the current legislation with the executive power (the county or city manager), who can freely ignore their advice if he/she so wishes.
Examples are continually being quoted both in your newspaper and others of instances where the democratically elected councillors have all voted one way (for example, that a particular planning application be refused), only to have the county or city manager ignore this expression of democracy in action and decide, behind closed doors, to grant permission for that development.
The Minister for Local Government, Mr Dempsey, has also confirmed that he has no effective control over how a county or city manager carries out his functions.
Therefore the position of the ordinary Irish citizen, so far as local government is concerned, is now no better than under the previous regime, as we are all still having to put up with a "dictatorship" in the very areas (planning, housing, public health etc.), which are most important to the day-to-day life of the ordinary Irish citizen.
The assertion by Mr Dempsey that the current position is acceptable, as any decision of a county or city manager can be subject to judicial review, is of no help to the vast majority of ordinary citizens who cannot afford the very high legal costs that such legal action entails. (The ESB has put its legal costs at £500,000 in respect of its recent judicial review case involving Cork County Council).
Similarly, even an Appeal to An Bord Pleanala against the grant of a planning permission by a county or city manager will require expensive professional help (Planning Law specialists charge over £1,000 a day). Therefore the so-called "right" of an ordinary Irish citizen to take the action referred to above is more apparent than real.
Perhaps someone among your readership can explain why the above state of affairs is allowed to continue. Is it, perhaps, a further example of the existence of a two-level society in Ireland, as exemplified by the recent EIB debacle? - Yours, etc.,
Kevin S. Reilly, Ballyarthur, Mitchelstown, Co Cork.