Chambers Ireland has called for speedy implementation of the recommendations of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group published today.
The business body said that if they were implemented quickly, many of the recommendations could deliver much-needed savings to local authorities.
Hilary Haydon of Chambers Ireland said restructuring the system of local government provided “a real opportunity to introduce new and more efficient ways of providing local services”.
“Whilst much of this will require further examination through the White Paper on Local Government, today’s report provides the first steps to achieving this change.”
“We note that if implemented in their entirety, the reforms outlined by the Review Group would result in savings of in the region of €511 million. Given that business has been the funder of ‘last resort’ for many local authorities, it follows that a significant amount of the cost savings achieved must be passed back to businesses in the form of reduced rates and other charges.”
The body said the case for introducing water charges for all service users was made clear at the beginning of 2010 when many local authorities were forced to reduce water pressure and, in some cases, stop supplies due to critically low reservoir levels. It said the Minister for the Environment must act now to introduce water meters, for all users.
Trade union Siptu, which represents the majority of workers in local authorities, said it will give the report “careful consideration”.
It welcomed the acknowledgement of the importance of protecting and developing services to the public.
The union said it also welcomed the acknowledgement by the group of the major contribution the local authority sector had made to restoring the public finances, and the €300 million in savings already achieved since 2008.
“Siptu further welcomes the acceptance by the authors of the report of the need for their recommendations to be processed through the agreed transformation agenda procedures and the Croke Park Agreement.”
Fine Gael’s environment spokesman Phil Hogan said the time was now right to examine local administration structures and to deliver real reform.
Mr Hogan said today’s report had produced “some interesting proposals on how to keep the cost of services to consumers as low as possible while retaining their high quality”.
Labour spokesman on local government Ciarán Lynch said the report would require indepth reading but contained many proposals of merit which should be pursued.
"There is no reason why we should not be able to pool corporate functions and other service areas, with each joint administrative area under the responsibility of combined management," he said.
"People in the areas affected by this proposal will be looking for reassurance that there is no proposal to scrap or merge the counties or the councils themselves, and I will be looking for clarity from the minister in this regard."