LOCAL authorities have been sharply criticised for their secretive, bureaucratic and anti consumer attitudes at a convention on quality in local government.
The convention was organised by the Department of the Environment and met in Dublin yesterday. It was told that the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland had referred the Department's own Value for Money (VFM) unit to the Ombudsman.
The VFM unit was established in 1993 to monitor and analyse local authority expenditure and issues recommendations.
"Despite repeated requests by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland for basic information about the VFM Unit in the Department, no information concerning their activities or reports has been released," said Ms Katherine Bulhulia, executive director of Waterford Chamber of Commerce. "It's as if the money referred to belonged to them, and not to the public."
She said it was "appalling" that the minister had not yet released the first stage of the local authority funding study, commissioned a year ago and meant to be completed in four months.
"At this stage, it is absolutely clear that the second, more substantive stage will not be completed before the end of 1996 which does not leave a great deal of time for implementation by a Government which must go to the country before the latter half of 1997," she said.
The Consumers' Association described the difficulty it had in finding out whether the public could have access to local authorities' public meetings. Of 104 out of 114 which replied, more than half did not allow public access to their monthly meetings.
The association's chief executive, Ms Caroline Gill, said that in the course of a swimming pool safety survey, one local authority refused it access to the pool on the grounds that safety was its business.
The convention was attended by both elected representatives and officials of the local authorities, and was organised as part of the Government's Strategic Management Initiative to improve the public service as a whole.
Opening it, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said local authorities should address a number of questions when improving their services to the public. These included comfortable and accessible offices, easy access to the relevant official, consultation and prompt attention to requests and applications, especially planning applications.
The convention heard criticisms of the procedures for making planning applications. Mr David Keane, president of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, pointed out that there are 88 planning authorities in all "approximately 80 too many".