Four years ago, the national government promised stronger, more democratic local government. What’s happened since?

A minister of state’s intervention in the Dublin city centre transport plan, and the council chief executive’s ability to derail that plan, highlight the need for stronger local government and stronger local democracy, local councillors have said.

The plan would make changes to city roads to encourage drivers not going to the core city centre, to drive around it instead of through it. There would be no ban on cars: drivers headed to the core city centre could continue to do that.

The aim of the plan, it says, is to reduce the number of cars in the core city centre, reducing pollution, and danger to other road users, and giving more space to the majority of people who use the area, who travel there by bus, Luas, train, foot, or bike.

Most of the city’s 63 councillors – who’ve been elected by local residents – have supported the plan, and yet council chief executive Richard Shakespeare, a public servant hired via the public appointments process, has the power to derail it.

He doesn’t risk losing his job at the next election if residents don’t like that decision, in the way an elected leader would. The roll-out of the plan would be happening differently, if Ireland had stronger, more democratic local government, councillors say.

And that’s something this government promised in its programme for government, Our Shared Future, published in 2020. “The new Government is committed to making local government stronger, more accountable, and more responsive to the communities it serves,“ the introduction to the section on local government says.

This is followed by 23 bulleted items the document says the government “will” do. It appears that only one item relates directly and explicitly to devolving powers from the central government to local authorities.

And the biggest move to make local government more democratic – creating a directly elected mayor – is being trialled in Limerick, but hasn’t come to Dublin yet, and there’s no time line for that to happen.

“Every government promises to reform and strengthen local government,” says Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan. “The only thing they do is reform, which is code for taking power away.”

More power would be good, but councillors can actually get a lot done with what they have, says Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney. And Green ministers are still pushing to get Dublin a directly elected mayor before this government’s five-year term ends in the coming months, she says.

“There’s still a couple of things we want to get done before this government ends,” Cooney says. “And a directly elected mayor is one of them.”

How bad is it?

A team from the Council of Europe that last visited in 2013 visited again last year, and issued a report in October. There have been “significant improvements” in the past decade, the report says.

“For example, with transfers of the responsibility for local economic and community development to local government and the abolishing of the dual mandate”, when politicians could simultaneously serve as councillors and TDs, it says.

Still, Ireland “remains one of the most centralised countries in Europe”, the report says. “A lot to be done before local self-government in Ireland is on par with other European countries.”

Asked about this report, Fianna Fáil TD Darragh O’Brien, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, noted the improvements made over the past decade, as well as the report’s finding that more improvements are needed.

“I will consider the findings and recommendations of the … report further and will consult with Government, as necessary,” he said in November, in response to queries in the Dáil from Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy.

Either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael have led every government since the foundation of the state, building and shaping it all – including the system of local government.

When, after the 2020 general election, the two parties went into coalition – with the Green Party – they published a programme for government, which included a section on local government.

What did they promise to do this time?

In their programme for government’s section on local government, these three parties set out 23 things they promised to do.

Among them, there is only one item explicitly and directly about making local government stronger in relation to the national government.

“Examine the prospect of devolving more powers to the local authorities through the legislative process to strengthen and enhance local democracy,” it says.

At least five of the items on the list are clearly about making local government more democratic, including “pass legislation to allow the first directly elected mayor in Limerick to be elected in 2021”.

And “Allow for plebiscites to be held in 2024 in any local authority that wishes to have a directly elected mayor.”

As well as “Where directly elected mayors are being established, we will transfer powers from the city and county managers to mayors.”

“Establish in 2021 a Citizens’ Assembly to consider the type of directly elected mayor and local government structures best suited for Dublin,” is also on the list.

However, quite a few items on the list do not involve giving local authorities additional powers or making them more democratic.

The government pledges to provide councillors with more training, and implement the Moorhead Report, which recommended raising councillors’ salaries.

The document also sets out some things the government plans to have councils do, or incentivise them to do.

Like “Develop a scheme between local authorities and Irish Water to provide drinking water fountains nationwide.”

Or “Mandate the establishment of climate action SPCs [strategic policy committees] in each local authority.”

What has the government done to strengthen local government?

So which of those things has the government done?

For starters, has it examined devolving more powers to local authorities?

The legislation allowing for a directly elected mayor of Limerick also gave that mayor “New powers of engagement/consultation”, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing, Local government and Heritage said in a 25-page response to queries about the government’s delivery on its promises on local government.

The government also gave councils the power to devise new, targeted schemes to reduce or waive commercial rates, the spokesperson said. “It will mean that elected members and local authorities can support specific objectives to promote community, social and economic development, urban planning or rural regeneration.”

He also said “Climate Action is now a key functional area for local government, with all local authorities now required under law to develop a climate action plan”, “under the policy responsibility” of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC).

And that, “Recently enacted marine planning law devolves a range of new marine planning functions to local authorities.”

In terms of strengthening local democracy, the government passed legislation to allow for an elected mayor of Limerick, and John Moran was elected to that role, with executive powers in planning, housing strategy, road transport and the environment, according to Limerick County Council.

The legislation also included provisions allowing for councillors and residents to call for plebiscites on directly elected mayors, the department spokesperson said.

There was a citizens’ assembly on a mayor for Dublin too, and its 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.

Taoiseach Simon Harris reportedly said in May that this wouldn’t happen under this government. But Green ministers haven’t given up on this yet, said Donna Cooney,

If Dublin already had a directly elected mayor it should have been that person, not Richard Shakespeare, an appointed public servant, who decided on whether and how to implement the proposed city centre transport plan, she said.

“That’s devolving power to the people,” Cooney said. “It’s a much more democratic system.”

Still, even under the current system councillors have more power than a lot of residents realise, and a lot of councillors say, she says.

“I think you can be very effective as a councillor,” she says. “Some people just don’t want to do much and then complain.”

The department spokesperson also pointed to more of the 23 items from the programme for government that the government has followed through on.

The government has implemented the “pay-related” recommendations of the Moorhead Report, the spokesperson said, raising salaries and reforming pay structures for local councillors.

It has ensured that councillors have access to research and training supports, the spokesperson said. It has introduced formal maternity leave for councillors, he said.

And, “In September 2023, a new allowance of up to €2,500 for Councillors to provide for measures to enhance their personal physical security.”

His response to the 23-item checklist went on at length.

What has the government done to weaken it?

On Dublin City Council, at meetings of all sorts, long-time Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey often criticises the government for taking powers away from local government.

Far from strengthening local government in Ireland – which the University of Lausanne’s Local Autonomy Index ranks roughly on par with Russia – this government has weakened it, Lacey says.

“They haven’t increased power, they haven’t devolved power, they have just steadily eroded power,” he says.

Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll said, “I’m constantly seeing things that suggest they [the government] want local government to have less power rather than more.”

Said Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor: “Our power’s constantly being taken away.”

Lacey, O’Driscoll and Doolan all separately pointed, as an example of the government diminishing councillors’ powers, to its recent abolition of the joint policing committees, chaired by councillors, where councillors would meet with Gardaí to talk about local or citywide issues.

These are being replaced by local community safety partnerships, with chairs recruited by the Department of Justice, and less councillor representation.

The government says the aim is to bring in a broader range of people and organisations, with the idea that this can help solve problems that policing alone maybe can’t.

So the local community safety partnerships are supposed to include Tusla, the HSE, the Probation Service, representatives from the community, from business, and more.

“Tusla and the HSE should be accountable to elected members, not made equal partners,” says Lacey, the Labour councillor. “What if I said the HSE and Tusla should be in cabinet, with equal votes?”

Although, the government got rid of the old system before it stood up this new system, so for now, neither system is in place.

Asked what powers the government has taken away from councils during its term so far, the Department of Housing spokesperson noted these changes, and said they are a matter for the Department of Justice.

The Department of Housing spokesperson also said that if a council wants to sell a bit of its land, it now first has to offer that site to the Land Development Agency.

He also said local governments are increasingly financially reliant on grants from the central government.

There’s been a “continuous trend over a number of years whereby Government Grants and Subsidies (45% of LA [local authority] income in 2024) have overtaken Commercial Rates (25%) as the main source of Local Authority funding”, he said.

“This can be partly explained by the distribution of HAP [Housing Assistance Payment] funding though the local government system in recent years; the increased reliance on central government funding in general,” he said.

What would strengthen local government?

If the government really wanted to give councils more power, it would allow them to raise more revenue, “and spend it on the things we want to spend it on”, said O’Dricoll, the Social Democrats councillor.

Sure, councillors can decide whether to vary the local property tax (LPT) by 15 percent above a base rate or below it. But revenue from that tax only accounted for 2 percent of the council’s 2023 budget.

And when the government abolished a system that had Dublin city sharing its local property tax revenue with other councils, and Dublin City Council got a bump in LPT income – the government directed it to use more of that to cover roads and housing costs, in lieu of getting government grants to cover those costs.

O’Driscoll says she’s been on the council for the making of four of Dublin City Council’s €1+ billion budgets. “We are able to influence such a tiny amount,” she says. Almost all the money is already earmarked, she says.

She wants to see the council given the power to impose a bed tax on hotels, and to spend the resulting additional income on what councillors want. Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor, said he too would like a hotel bed tax – and maybe Dublin could retain some of the VAT collected in the city, he suggested.

In other countries, city governments can propose a new tax along with a programme for what they’d spend the additional revenue on, and hold a plebiscite to let residents decide whether they’re on board, O’Driscoll says. What about something like that? she asks.

Cooney, the Green Party councillor, said she’d like to see a directly elected mayor for Dublin. Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor, said he would too, in principle – but a lot depends on the details.

“The key isn’t the mayor part, or the directly elected part, it’s what powers will be devolved to the mayor,” he said. “There’s no point in the mayor just absorbing powers from elected councillors.”

The central government fears a directly elected Dublin mayor with real power, as that person would become the political leader in Ireland with the second-largest mandate after the president, Doolan said.

Yes, says Cooney, the Green Party councillor, the government doesn’t want an elected Dublin mayor opposing a minister on an issue. “But I think that would be healthy.”

TDs shouldn’t fear creating strong local governments, Doolan says. That would allow councillors to handle local issues, which would let TDs focus on the big picture: international affairs, national policies, and like that.

“But because the everything’s so centralised, people go to their TDs about traffic issues, or their bins,” Doolan says. “They’re just like super duper councillors.”