Central government promises, again, to give councillors more powers

The government plans to set up a new Local Democracy Taskforce “to finalise a programme for the reform and strengthening of local government”, according to a briefing document from the Department of Local Government.

The government’s 2025 programme included a range of commitments related to local government reform, which will need to “inform” the task force’s terms of reference, the document says.

These include “Rebalancing power between elected councillors and executive officers”, it says.

At the moment, elected councillors have relatively few powers, compared to, say, the chief executive officers of the councils, who are hired through the public appointments process.

Councillors do have a role in overseeing these executives, managers, and other staff members running the operations of the council.

But many councillors tread lightly, as angering them can make it more difficult for councillors to represent individual constituents and get them what they need from the council.

However, the commitments in the programme for government that will inform the work of the taskforce include “Increasing the accountability of the Chief Executive and Directors of Services to councillors for executive decisions”, the briefing document says.

As well as ensuring that councillors are better consulted, and kept informed of decisions made by executive officers moving forward, and enhancing the mechanisms in place to allow local authority members to hold management to account, it says.

And granting councillors greater input and control over the development and implementation of the council budget, it says.

The programme for government also committed to “consider further plebiscites in Dublin and other cities” on whether to have directly elected mayors. And to “establishing town councils in large towns”, the briefing document says.

Like in Balbriggan, perhaps, which, until its abolition under the Local Government Reform Act of 2014, operated out of the town hall.

The document also suggests that the taskforce is likely to look at the proportion of councillors to members of the population.

Of course – promises, promises. The 2020 programme for government also included a lot of pledges for local government reform. But the record of that government – which was very like this government – on following through on those pledges was spotty.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Local Government did not say exactly when the Local Democracy Taskforce would officially get to work.

First, its terms of reference need to be developed and approved by the government, the spokesperson said, after which, its first meeting would take place “as soon as possible”.

Origins

The establishment of the Local Democracy Taskforce was recommended by the Seanad Public Consultation Committee on 10 October.

It was among 25 recommendations set out by the committee as part of its Report on the Future of Local Democracy.

Its objectives were laid out in a Local Government Function Brief issued by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on 29 January 2025, records show.

Reform is long overdue, says Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose, who got the briefing document in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

“We had the 2001 Local Government Act and 2014 reform act. But we haven’t had much in those eleven years,” Jose said.

Councillors often complain that the central government has been chipping away at their power for years, sometimes in big swings, and sometimes, little ones.

Ireland is a “solid democracy” but “it remains one of the most centralised countries in Europe”, according to the Council of Europe’s European Charter of Local Self-Government report on local self-government in Ireland, published in October 2023.

Who will be on the taskforce?

It isn’t confirmed yet who exactly will be in this taskforce.

In the briefing document Jose got, the section listing its membership has been redacted. It’s just a big black box.

Why that was blocked out wasn’t made clear, Jose said Monday. “But it has to include Lord Mayors, councillors, chairs of policy committees, people with real world experience in local government, and not the people who led us to be the most centralised country.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, on Tuesday evening, said the taskforce will include elected representatives and executive representatives from local authorities.

It will also include the National Oversight and Audit Commission, the Department of Housing and Local Government, and “a number of independent experts”, with an independent chairperson.

The spokesperson did not provide a timeline for when the taskforce would commence.

The terms of reference for the taskforce are currently under development by the department, they said.

“Following further consideration and input from key stakeholders, they will be brought to Government for approval,” they said.

The first meeting of the taskforce will take place as soon as possible after that, they said.

Ratios and boundaries

Among the issues likely to be included in the new taskforce’s terms of reference is the ratio of councillors to constituents, the briefing paper says.

It’s important that be looked at, Jose said Monday. “My ward [in Cabra-Glasnevin] has 65,000 people, and seven councillors. Leitrim county is 35,000, they have 18.”

So, in Cabra-Glasnevin, the workload of each councillor is much higher, he says. “Things slip through the cracks. Especially in the city centre area, where issues are a lot more extreme.”

Adding more councillors isn’t the solution, Jose says. There are already 63 councillors on Dublin City Council.

“But you might ask, are the current boundaries of the four local authorities appropriate?” Jose said.

Redrawing some of those might be more effective than just increasing the number of councillors, he said. “Seventy-odd people, and I think you’re going more toward Parliament levels.”

Directly elected mayor

The briefing document also raised the question of a directly elected mayor. “The PFG [programme for government] 2025 commits to consider further plebiscites in Dublin and other cities,” it says.

This is something councillors in Dublin city have been waiting on, with little knowledge on when this might progress, says Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney.

Limerick city’s directly elected mayor was supposed to be the start of this, but she hasn’t heard anything since the Dublin Citizens’ Assembly published its final report in January 2023, she says.

The 2024 Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2024 makes provision for individual local authorities to hold plebiscites on this question to select a mayor with executive functions.

That Dublin Citizens’ Assembly members voted (59 percent) that there should be a plebiscite on whether Dublin should get a directly elected mayor, and that voters should be told what powers that mayor would have.

But when he was Taoiseach, Fine Gael TD Simon Harris reportedly said that this wouldn’t happen under his government.

It didn’t. And the new government elected in November is still primarily made up of the same two big parties – Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil – as that last one.