A proposal to elect mayors and county council chairpersons directly, has been made to the Government by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, but has come up against opposition from vested interests, most notably city and county managers, who fear a loss of power. The Government should resist such pressure. It is high time the structure of local government was examined with a view to making it more democratically accountable and capable of representing local interests more effectively. If that must be achieved by transferring powers held by centrally appointed managers to elected officials, so be it. They have had a very long time indeed to sustain what is one of the most centralised states in the European Union. The proposal for directly-elected mayors and chairpersons has much to commend it as a way to re-enervate local democracy.
Mr Dempsey came up with the proposal in an article in this newspaper before last June's Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution Bill 1999, which voters approved in what was aptly described at the time as an invisible referendum. It gave constitutional recognition to the role of local government 100 years after its establishment under the British administration, and provided that local elections be held every five years, rather than at the whim of the government of the day. The pattern of local government became steadily more centralised and bureaucratic in the decades after independence. Under successive Management Acts, many powers were transferred from elected officers to managers - a system we have come to take very much for granted ever since. In the late 1970s that emasculation was followed by the abolition of rates - a Fianna Fail measure which further removed direct accountability from the local government system.
The time has surely come to ask radical question about these structures in the light of Ireland's rapid economic growth. A strong case can be made that unreformed, they impose barriers to effective development. But it is very difficult to get such questions onto the political agenda in the face of the sort of bureaucratic pressure now being exerted by the city and county managers. The National Plan has a vital spatial component, as decisions are awaited on where to concentrate growth centres and how EU cohesion funds should best be channelled to optimise regional development. There are grave doubts about the capacity of the existing government system to deliver the necessary planning. But the regional bodies set up for these tasks are only token exercises in administrative devolution and democracy. The central government system and the Department of Finance retain control.
Likewise, the local government system could be an engine, not only of more democracy, but of more effective development. Elected mayors are one good means of starting such a reform. Mr Dempsey should stick to his guns.