To make things better, we must fix the system itself
While other candidates are just playing the game, I aim to change the rules of the game.
On doorsteps ahead of the local elections, the priorities of the workers and carers I speak with align closely with my own - a desire for affordable housing and functional public services. Their desires are informed by countless unique and personal stories which highlight how the system has individually failed them or those they care about.
At this stage, your typical and all-too-familiar politician would merely take note of their individual issue and make a vague promise to personally address their problem if - and only if - the politician can be elected with the help of their first preference vote. I think I speak for all members of the community in saying that we have had enough of these types of candidates, and that we need a new approach if we are to escape the situation we are in now. People have overwhelmingly lost hope and trust in local politics, and after countless empty promises, it’s not difficult to see why. The root cause is not simply the people we elect, but the system itself.
In conversations with people in ‘Tramore-Waterford City West’, I have been honest in acknowledging that we have one of the weakest local democracies in the democratic world, and that those who we elect as councillors can make hardly any truly meaningful decisions. The main promise I make, however, is that I will use my platform to build as broad a coalition as possible, composed of like-minded councillors, workers and carers in communities around the country, to pressure the national government to reform local government in order to make it truly democratic. Ensuring that those in power locally are elected by and accountable to us is the key to begin fixing all other issues in Ireland.
Whether it’s badly-designed public space (Waterford, like much of Ireland, contains many examples), a much-needed extra bus stop, a nonsensical new road layout, or a lack of public housing; nothing seems to work as it should. Despite us living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it very often doesn’t feel like it, and public services, particularly local ones, continue to be inefficient and unresponsive.
I believe that a major reason for our public services being much worse than in comparable countries is that, unlike almost every democracy in the world, we don’t have the right to elect our local government. No matter who we elect as our local councillors, the real decision-making executive which controls our roads, our social housing, and our planning is unelected and unaccountable to the people. Instead of an elected local government, our local government is composed of a ‘CEO of the Council’, appointed by the national government, and their bureaucratic directors of services who take on delegated functions. In most other countries, those in charge of both the day-to-day running of local government and of major spending decisions are elected by those of us affected by these decisions; if they do a bad job, they simply elect better representatives to replace them.
In Ireland, we are denied this basic democratic right. The local councillors we elect are largely limited to passing powerless motions which simply set a tone or indicate what they would like to implement if only they had the power to. The ability to allocate funding for specific infrastructure - public toilets, new public parks, cycle lanes - is completely withheld from those we elect, and is instead decided entirely by unelected officials who most of us have never heard of.
Every 5 years, a big deal is made about the local development plans which set out an overview of public space design guidelines and prioritisation of projects, which councillors must approve. But once again, the actual design of this plan mostly ignores the input of those we elect, while excluding the communities most affected from the decision-making process entirely.
When I mention the concept of an elected local government, people first think of a directly-elected mayor, such as the incoming Mayor of Limerick City & County Council. However, while a directly-elected mayor can offer a real opportunity to empower locals, the title could easily end up being ceremonial and toothless in its current iteration if further powers aren’t pushed for. Seeking more powers is something which will inevitably not be a priority if a mayor is elected from one of the major parties which already hold significant national influence.
In our national government, we have a cabinet executive; such a system exists in local government in much of England and in Spain. A mayor or council leader is elected from among the councillors with the support of a majority, often requiring a coalition of various parties. That mayor or council leader then appoints a local minister for housing, planning etc from among their majority coalition of councillors to form a cabinet. The remaining councillors hold them to account through scrutiny committees, but they must vote on major decisions as a full council. This helps to empower more voices and perspectives than a directly-elected mayor where power is concentrated in just one individual.
My preferred system of local government, a committee system, which is used in most of Scotland, helps to empower the broadest array of those democratically-elected to represent us. Each committee should be broadly proportional to the percentage of seats on the council, but negotiation can take place if some party or candidate has a main priority, in order to ensure that expertise and areas of interest among those elected are taken into consideration. For example, a party very focused on transport which secured 20% of the seats on a council may choose to take no seats on the housing committee in order to be able to take more seats on the transport committee. The committees then vote on decisions based on their respective area of competence, be it economic development, housing or planning.
Importantly, the specific democratic structure must be flexible, with councils able to choose one which fits them best. A council with many independents such as Kerry may benefit most from a cabinet executive, while a council with various similarly-sized parties and a few independents like Waterford may benefit most from a committee system. I propose that local councils be given the ability to decide their own structure by resolution of the majority of councillors or by local referendum, in order to allow flexibility and to take account of local context. We would not be the first country to do this, and many others empower their local councils in similar ways.
Along with the introduction of democratic local governments, we must pressure our national government to implement a major programme of decentralisation of powers from national level to regional and local level. A history of unaccountable and unelected local governments has led to Ireland being one of the only countries in Europe where we trust our local government less than our national one. In light of this fact, it is understandable why so many powers have, in recent decades, been taken from our unelected local government by the national government. But this has resulted in countless inefficiencies and a serious lack of accountability. While some powers such as healthcare, gardaí, education, high-level economic development, and regional transport would be best held by a newly-empowered regional assembly, local public transport, housing, refuse collection, social care, water & waste management, and planning must be fully reinstated as local public services, in order to take advantage of local knowledge and the close democratic scrutiny required to encourage efficient and responsive public services.
The final piece of the puzzle in this major plan for a renewal of local democracy and public accountability is funding. Ireland is one of the most centralised countries in the OECD in terms of funding, and most money that the local government receives comes in the form of very specific grants which are applied for from the national government, binding local government into a set of strict criteria. That may make sense in our current system where the local government is unelected, but a newly-democratic government must have the freedom to spend public money in a way which it deems fit, while being held to account and scrutinised by locals in the communities which it serves.
On the doorsteps, workers and carers are frustrated with the current system, and many are eager to join the rest of the democratic world in being given the opportunity to elect local councillors who can form a local government which faces true accountability. Many I speak to see a direct link between the present centralisation of public services and the terrible quality of these very same services in their daily lives. I can’t change this system alone, but I can help to build a movement of councillors and communities around the country to push for true local democracy, and the more efficient public services which come with that.
I could merely promise to fix a few potholes as many other candidates do, but I honestly believe that we must first push our national government to fix our local government system, and empower communities directly, if we are to address our many crises in housing, healthcare, and the other essential public services which we depend on.
