Local councillors want more rights, but if they are to get them they must also take on responsibilities for their actions, suggests Chris Andrews
Local authorities are in danger of making themselves redundant. Many are debating the need for a directly elected lord mayor.
As a city councillor, listening to these debates, I feel I have a better understanding of how the captain of the Titanic felt as he watched colleagues rearrange the deck chairs on his sinking ship.
Local government is holed, and only councillors can bale it out. Reform is needed. The issue is the shape of that reform.
Many councillors pine for reform that gives powers without responsibility, powers that would allow councillors to make decisions detrimental to the city without being held accountable for them by the electorate (flashback to waste management charges!)
Currently, no decisions made by councillors, no matter how irresponsible, will precipitate a local election. For five years councillors can vote and say what they want without ever being held accountable, a convenient reality for those unwilling to make difficult decisions.
Over the last 20 years local government has been bypassed by a series of initiatives aimed at local community support and development. The handing-over of the decision-making to outside agencies has meant that councillors have lost their position as the key democratic focus at local level.
Temple Bar Properties is a perfect example of where Dublin City Council has outsourced the decision-making process in a central and key area of Dublin and now finds itself, despite being a majority shareholder, no longer able to effect change in central Dublin.
There is a willingness, at Cabinet level, to give local government more power, and there have been many positive changes in favour of local government; local government is now recognised in our Constitution as local elections are now constitutionally guaranteed.
There is now a new funding system, the local government fund, which has delivered significantly increased resources to local authorities. A major efficiency agenda is evolving with modern financial management systems, accounting systems and value-for-money audit.
Strategic policy committees allow for greater input by members and introduces the partnership approach. The area committees also allow increased paticipative democracy. Better supports are available for councillors than ever before.
A wide-ranging independent study of local government funding is being carried out and is due to be completed in the next year.
Of course, the Labour Party and some independents will throw their toys out of their cot at every public opportunity.
In private they thank those of us who take the difficult but necessary decisions. They take any position that suits at the time. They can do this safely in the knowledge that they are not going to have to face an election as a result of their decision.
As councillors we have responsibilities to those that elected us. This appears to be an alien concept to many.
Many public representatives are adept at highlighting the rights of local authority members but are not as forthcoming on their responsibilities.
Surely increased powers for councillors must be accompanied by increased political accountability at local level. There has been no evidence of this happening over the last five years, where opposition parties have played games with issues as important as waste management.
Those calling for local government reform are unlikely to stop crying wolf, for if they do they might have to reflect on the part they play in local government.
Local government may not have a future unless it changes radically. More locally-based participative democracy liaising with area-based management is the alternative to the current finger-pointing devolved local government system.
Until councillors reflect on their own role within local government, and accept they are net contributors to the flaws in it, then any reform will be rendered wasted and councillors will soon become expensive deck-chair attendants.
Chris Andrews is a Fianna Fáil member of Dublin City Council