What Ireland Should Be (The Village)
(as published in The Village)
What Ireland Should be ? – For the moment I am going to leave that one, to my fellow Village contributors and, given their unfortunate dominance, to the great and the good who lecture, pontificate and broadcast to us every day, from what some still quaintly call our National Broadcasting Service; RTÉ.
Instead I want to concentrate on Dublin – our Capital City. What sort of Dublin do I want to see in the years ahead. First of all I want a Dublin that is not ignored. Just because something occurs in Dublin it is deemed too often to be about, or for Dublin. Sadly in many cases nothing could be further from the truth. Dublin specific issues and commentary on the great community activity and voluntary endeavour by so many in this City are largely absent from public comment. The scandal of homelessness and poor housing in these Celtic Tiger times, the scourge of drug addiction and the destruction of vibrant inner city communities were all largely ignored until it was too late.
I want to see a Dublin that has equal representation in Dail and Seanad Eireann with the rest of the country. I want to see a Dublin where collectively Public Representatives “Stand up for Dublin” in the same un-self conscious manner as our rural colleagues unquestionably fight the corner for their home areas. The recent battle to preserve Leitrim as a single Dail Constituency is a case in point. Nobody has pointed out the fact that Leitrim has nearly seven times the opportunity to elect members of Seanad Eireann as Dublin. In that as in so many areas of Irish life Dublin loses out.
I want to see a Dublin whose Local Government system is acknowledged as having as democratic a legitimacy, and at least a portion of the powers, as the new Assembly in Northern Ireland. I want to see a transformed Local Government system in Dublin and I want to see it given the powers to deliver services and programmes to the people of this great City. So how do we achieve this?
Dublin needs a radically transformed system of Local Government. The division of the County into four artificial Council areas is neither sensible nor, in my view, working. There is no logic to the divisions and no identifiable sense of community to the names or administrative areas of responsibility of these new County Councils. Thus Ballinteer in the South West is in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council area, while Lucan and Clondalkin to the west are in South Dublin County Council and Castleknock and Blanchardstown in the north west are in Fingal. None of these has a specific area logic or local consistency. They all have an identification with Dublin and would be better off with a single powerful elected body making the major decisions. Yet all should also have some form of real local decision making on local issues than the present system allows.
In my view there is a pressing need to have one overarching new Dublin Regional Authority. This Authority would be comprised of approximately thirty full time directly elected members covering the entire County of Dublin with some limited representation from the surrounding Counties. It would be led by a directly elected Lord Mayor and would serve for a five year renewable term of office. Running parallel to this would be a series of Area Based Councils or Committees comprised as at present of part-time or voluntary elected members. Here decisions, in line with best international practice, could be taken at the lowest possible level.
As a central part of this reform I want to see the disastrous, interfering and incompetently used powers of the so called Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to intervene in the internal affairs of local Councils to be abolished. In that way Councillors elected by their local communities could get on with the job in hand, or face the consequences with the electorate next> time round. In the case of failure to agree an approach, fresh elections, similar to the situation at National level would be held.
The new Dublin Regional Authority would be responsible for all strategic, planning, housing and transport decisions and would co-ordinate Dublin> ‘> s response to European Union programmes and national guidelines. It would determine the Annual Budget, be the driver of a persistent and consistent approach to tackling poverty and disadvantage and be the Garda Authority provided for in the Garda Siochana Bill (2004) currently before the Oireachtas. This list is indicative and not exhaustive. Above all it will be a voice for Dublin that, for far too long, in my opinion, been toned down, if not altogether silenced.
Of course all of this has to be accompanied by a type of politics that is built on ideas, constructed on values and driven by a commitment to Country and, in this case, County. I believe that such an approach is possible. I believe that the vast majority of those in public life want to leave a better Ireland than the one we inherited.
I want to see a Local Government system in Dublin and for Dublin that will be a model for the future. I want it to be an agenda setting vehicle for social change and a focus for positive action. There have been many plans published. Too many analyses carried out and too little action. The time has long past for real change.
When the Government, here in the Republic, has concluded telling the British Government how much governance needs to be reformed in Northern Ireland they might turn their attention to this part of the island.
For a start they might rescind the decision to abandon the proposal to have directly elected Lord Mayors. This much needed measures due to come into effect in June of this year was quietly dropped by Martin Cullen in one of his many unfortunate moves while in the Custom House.
The Government might then enable that democratically mandated Lord Mayor do the job of delivering for the City by paying Dublin City Council the €24million in commercial rates that it owes for this year alone. Arrears we can then negotiate on.
Real change can however best be achieved by providing for a Dublin Regional Authority with clout, finance and democratic accountability. An Authority that can and will “Stand up for Dublin”. I’ll be waiting and I’ll be hoping but while doing so I will be campaigning. Campaigning for a better deal for Dublin and a brighter future for its citizens.
Councillor Dermot Lacey
