+34
A development plan for the town, beside the busy industrial centre around the airport, has been delayed for 20 years by Clare County Council
A development plan for the town, beside the busy industrial centre around the airport, has been delayed for 20 years by Clare County Councilin The Irish Times this week on Shannon, a town of 10,000 people – the size of Castlebar or Wicklow and badly lacking local amenities – illustrates many of the pathologies affecting government in Ireland.
These problems are partly identified in the Government’s response to theof the Local Democracy Taskforce it set up last year. The failure to meet the infrastructural needs of a growing and more diverse population is exacerbated by the highly centralised way those needs are addressed.has spent the first month of his prime ministership setting his domestic agenda and putting devolution of power from London to English regions, mayors and localities firmly on it.
He speaks about the need for a written constitution to codify the UK’s intergovernmental relations. While he has been criticised for double standards by nationalists in Scotland and Northern Ireland for saying referendums on independence and Irish unity are “off-limits” or “off the table”, his decentralising plans for England are seen as progressive but incomplete without greater fiscal and decision-making powers to implement them. That echoes long-standing critiques of local government reforms in Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Ireland inherited its centralised state structures from the departing colonial power in 1922 and then reinforced them through the zeal of the new nationalist elite. Convinced that the local government system established in 1898 was corrupt and in need of more centralised direction, they gradually shifted power away from local authorities over the following decades. Ireland is now one of the least locally governed states in Europe.
Gardaí spending their time peering at NCT disks is one symptom of a wider problemSarah Moss’s last Irish Times column: ‘Being hated on the internet has begun to tint my life’ Shannon’s problems of public facility underprovision tell that story vividly. A development plan for the town, located beside the busy industrial centre around the airport, has been delayed for 20 years by Clare county council. Public spaces, pubs and a theatre are lacking and many houses are unoccupied.
Local activists live in hope of improvement; but because they have so little experience of empowered local government, they see little real prospect of it. Elsewhere in Europe decisions about the provision of family and healthcare, public spaces and housing are more oftenSuch contradictions litter the experiences of cities, towns and rural areas all over this State. How well are they addressed by the Government’s latest proposals?
The Government’sthe Implementation Plan, developed in response to the Local Democracy Taskforce report, “sets out a comprehensive programme of reforms designed to strengthen local democracy, empower communities and enhance the role of elected councillors across Ireland. ” These goals are vitally important, but the effort is still halfhearted. The plan breaks them into eight strategic objectives to be implemented sequentially by 79 measures over the next ½ years before the local elections in 2029.
An impressively coherent document, it is strongest on better co-ordination of central and local government, the de-siloeing of government departments, the creation of municipal councils to link urban and rural areas, the communication of results to councillors and citizens, and the establishment of key performance indicators. It is more tentative on devolving central executive and fiscal powers such as housing, transport, community health and wellbeing; and least convincing on shifting the power structures of party politics, central bureaucracy and special commercial interests which dominate existing Irish democracy and governance.
Political, civic and media reactions have been low key. Opposition parties acknowledge the need for change, but criticise the plan’s lack of firm commitment to transfer central powers. Existing stakeholders engaged with the taskforce are most favourable, notably on enhanced consultation mechanisms with their representative bodies and a greater role for women. Reactions to the Burnham devolution plans are similar.
Within a broad welcome for its ambitious goals, critics doubt whether they outstrip the machinery to accomplish them. Might they unintentionally enhance rather than achieve greater regional and social inequalities? Constitutional critics say the English-focused devolution plans will actually destabilise the UK’s union by disappointing Scottish and Irish nationalists.
More generally competing priorities on economic growth, welfare spending and defence facing Burnham’s government may mean he cannot give devolution and constitutional change the attention they need to preserve the UK’s political stability. In that case, Burnham’s confident statement that an Irish unity referendum is off the table is less convincing.
All the more reason that Irish political actors should payto how British political events affect Ireland and prepare for potentially more fundamental changes in these relations, if Burnham’s reform programme falters in the next three years. Scottish researchershis devolution programme requires close analysis to assess its means and feasibility. This is a parallel agenda on how to decentralise Irish and British governments. That’s not a hum from your local data centre.
It’s a growing backlash‘If you wake up after a night in Phoenix Park, you think: What is the point? ’Patrick Bergin, co-star of Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy, seeks buyer for Offaly castleThat’s not a hum from your local data centre. It’s a growing backlash
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Teenage e-bike rider killed in hit-and-run on Clare-Limerick borderA boy in his mid-teens was fatally injured in a hit-and-run incident on the L3050 near Cloonlara, Clare, shortly after 11pm on Friday. Gardaí are investigating and seeking witnesses, particularly those with camera footage from the area.
Read more »
Grehan puts Walker Cup comeback from 14 foot to defeat world number oneSTUART GREHAN PRODUCED one of the standout moments of the Walker Cup when putting a 14-footer on the eighteenth hole in Lahinch to defeat the world's top ranked amateur golfer Preston Stout in their singles match. Tullamore native Stuart is the only Irish golfer on Team GB & I, he commanded a strong support at the famous Clare links which became only the third Irish course to host the international match.
Read more »
Police Seek Driver of Skoda Octavia After Teenaged E‑bike Rider GonePolice in County Clare are searching for the driver or occupants of a silver/gold Skoda Octavia, numbered 05‑C‑5982, after a teenage boy, Bryan Lowe, died in a hit‑and‑run incident on Friday night. The car was seen in local roads between 6pm and 11am, and Gardaí are calling on witnesses for any video evidence they may have. Community reactions highlight the tragedy and the need for justice.
Read more »
State must hold firm on carbon tax, which helps protect the most vulnerablePolicy has effectively been dictated by small group of protesters with little concern for wider impacts on society
Read more »