WHAT A difference a recession makes! Proposals for the amalgamation and restructuring of city and county councils envisage cuts of between 15 and 30 per cent in the number of middle, senior and top managers over a number of years. Contrast that with the establishment of the Health Service Executive in 2004 when not a single health board official was let go by the government.
Not alone have recommendation from the Local Government Efficiency Review Group been radical and challenging in reviewing the cost base, expenditure and the numbers employed by local authorities, but the Government has adopted them with alacrity. Minister for the Environment John Gormley will now appoint an implementation body to oversee the changes, beginning next year. Savings in excess of €500 million have been identified.
Doing it this way probably makes good financial sense. It certainly makes political sense because it distracts attention from the Government’s unwillingness to introduce property and water charges to finance local government, as recommended last year by the Commission on Taxation. The chance of securing acceptance for the kind of fundamental administrative and structural reforms now proposed would have been greatly reduced had hefty new sources of revenue become available to local government.
Initial reaction to the reforms from the groups likely to be affected has ranged from cautious resistance to outright hostility. That was to be expected, in light of proposals to amalgamate 20 city and county districts; transfer powers for planning, roads and housing from town councils to county councils; reduce staff numbers and increase responsibilities for the remaining managers. If this represents a foretaste of what the Croke Park deal is about, then the public service could be in for a right shake up.
Apart from contentious restructuring and administration issues, the report recommends that annual audits be conducted by all councils and submitted to the Oireachtas. Value for money and transparency in procurement and spending functions is urged. To eliminate petty jobbery, it proposes that all future council appointments be made through the Public Appointments Service. Issues like higher charges for driving licences, the tolling of national roads and direct deduction of local authority rents from social welfare payments are likely to generate controversy. But they do not represent nails in a government coffin. Property and water charges do.
Local authorities are in dire financial trouble, in spite of making savings of €300 million during the past two years. These reforms may delay, but they will not stop the rot. The Review Group devotes a single paragraph to domestic water charges and a property tax. Their introduction, it said, would bring Ireland into line with international norms. And it suggests that operational arrangements be put in place as a matter of priority. That is pretty much what the Commission on Taxation recommended a year ago when it described such taxes as important components of local government funding.