Councillors lack the power and the funding to meet the needs of a rapidly changing and more diverse Irish society
The councillors elected in the 26 county, three city and two county and city areas will represent 5,196 citizens per councillor, compared to 600 in Belgium. Photograph: Agency Stock
The councillors elected in the 26 county, three city and two county and city areas will represent 5,196 citizens per councillor, compared to 600 in Belgium, 620 in Spain and 412 in Finland. In France one councillor represented 118 citizens in 2002, in Austria 209, Sweden 256, while in Ireland the figure was 2,336. The abolition of 83 town councils here in 2014 severely increased the representation ratio.
Councillors have access to only 3 per cent of overall Irish tax revenue raised at local level, compared to an average of 15 per cent elsewhere in Europe. The overall tax revenue spent at local level is 8 per cent compared to an EU average of 23 per cent. In Denmark the figure is 64 per cent. Property taxes, similarly, compare on a 2 per cent to 7 per cent ratio; Irish property tax was centralised and now does not return to local level evenly or predictably.
All this matters greatly for the quality and scope of government and democracy in Ireland. Local democratic control of expanding governing functions and taxation needed by a growing and more equal society is an essential ingredient of political change here. But it is rarely articulated by political parties, which see local elections as vehicles towards national politics. That only encourages the clientelism and personalism often used to discredit local government.
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