Local authority staff constantly find themselves at the rough end of Government policies that stymie services, a conference organised by the trade union Impact heard last night, writes Martin Wall, Industry Correspondent, in Ennis
Opening the biennial conference of the local authority division of Impact in Ennis, Co Clare, cathaoirleach Alice Hennessy said staff were frequently bearing the brunt of criticism for policy failures and poor levels of Government funding. Nowhere was this more acute than in the area of social housing.
Ms Hennessy said councils were effectively prevented from investing in new social housing, despite soaring waiting lists, as a result of the ongoing refusal by the Government to put local authority funding on a proper footing.
"The 10-year policy timeframe for housing set out in Towards 2016 is a positive approach, but it does not disguise the failure to deliver on affordable and social housing over the last decade.
"While local authority waiting lists soar, councils are effectively prevented from investing in new social housing - and other services - by the Government's ongoing refusal to put local authority funding on a proper footing."
Ms Hennessy said it was not unreasonable for young families to expect to be able to afford a roof over their heads.
"But it is not government ministers who have to give them the bad news when they come to their local council to seek help and advice. That task falls to our members on the front line - ordinary working people who are often facing the same problems themselves."
At the conference of the Civil Service division of Impact, also in Ennis, cathaoirleach Una Geaney said critics of the public service could not bring themselves to acknowledge that workers were making a positive contribution to change.
"If you arrived in Ennis from Mars and spent a week reading the papers, you would come to the conclusion that the Irish public service was a hopeless basket case, characterised by waste, incompetence, inflexibility and disruption.
"Yet many international studies have rated the performance and efficiency of Ireland's public services above the international average."