The local elections are coming up on June 5th, but how much power does local government actually have?
IT'S A WINDY Tuesday afternoon in Navan. Rain and thick traffic sweep through the town. On the steps of the County Council building, councillors gather to get the "family photograph". It is the last monthly meeting of the council before local elections on June 5th.
It is a jolly group, oblivious to the moody day. They are predominantly male and middle-aged or older. Of the almost 30 gathered, only three are women and only a smattering are young - including the unmistakable, unfeasibly tall and youthful figure of Shane Cassells, who stood for Fianna Fáil in the Meath byelection in 2005.
These days councillors have laptops and surf the web as debates go on in the chamber. Officials make slick Powerpoint presentations on a giant screen. Some council meetings are even video-streamed. But apart from these cosmetic changes little has changed in the council chambers over the years.
Here today, in the Meath County Council chamber, tributes are paid to three retiring councillors. There are stout defences of St Patrick's Day trips to Australia and New York. And, curiously, there is even discussion of the fact that Mikado remains the biscuit of choice for tea breaks in the council chambers of Ireland.
There is an item on the M3 motorway and the Hill of Tara controversy, though the debate generates little heat. Also on the agenda is a debate about Eirgrid's proposed power line through Co Meath, which will involve the erection of 174 pylons.
Elsewhere there are mentions of proposals for an incinerator in Nobber. The finance officer reads a report that concludes that, of the €42 million due from development levies, the net yield is likely to be closer to €21.5 million because of the economic downturn.
Councillors also press for a HGV ban in Slane, following yet another accident on the hill that runs steeply to the River Boyne.
The full council meeting takes four hours. The only reference to planning comes during the debate on the levy, where it is disclosed that there are 800-1,000 one-off houses with planning permission in the county. Planning and zoning and the five-year county development plan have dominated other meetings, some of which have gone on until the early hours of the morning.
On June 5th, people will go to the polls to elect 1,627 councillors to the 34 city and county councils, five borough councils and 75 town councils in the State.
But as two academics from University College Cork, Liam Weeks and Aodh Quinlivan, point out in their new book All Politics is Local: A Guide to Local Elections in Ireland,local elections are something of a mystery to the general public. It seems many people in Ireland do not understand the system or what local authorities do. Local elections are often seen as unimportant or irrelevant.
"This apathy is shared by large portions of the media, who opt to analyse local elections merely in the context of what they mean for national politics," the authors say.
WHEN PEOPLE CAST their votes early next month, what will they be deciding?
Just about every one of the 114 authorities have websites, and most give an overview of their services on the home page.
For example, Carlow County Council website (Carlow is one of the smallest councils in the country) relates that it has a budget this year of €51.5 million and 400 employees (it has had to let 24 go this year because of cutbacks).
It carries out a wide range of services, including the provision of roads, housing, water, waste and other environmental services, libraries, the fire service, recreation, arts and culture.
It is responsible for planning and development, traffic and parking, and water quality in the county. And it also promotes business, arts, culture, sport and community involvement in the country.
Carlow county manager Tom Barry, points to its role in trying to attract and stimulate enterprise in the county. Two big blows to the county in recent years, the downsizing of the Braun appliances factory and the closure of the sugar factory have been offset by new investments by Merck, Sharp and Dohme and by American technology company Unum, which will create some 230 jobs.
By contrast, Dublin City Council, the biggest local authority in the country, has 6,700 staff and a budget of €1.5 billion. It provides all the services that local authorities elsewhere do. There are 1,000 people working in its fire service, for example.
Dublin city manager John Tierney explains the council has a local, regional and national role, but also an international role, with an international affairs and research section that indicates how Dublin is performing compared to other cities abroad.
The council is vying to become European City of Science, or the European Capital of Sport, or to attract the Heineken Cup or Uefa finals to Dublin in 2011.
"I joke that every morning as people leave for work there is a flush, a wash and a rush and the council is involved in all three actions," says Tierney.
He is referring to the 113 million gallons of water made available each day, the waste water for a population of 2.2 million, and the fact that the council oversees 500,000 vehicle movements each day in the city.
According to Aodh Quinlivan, local councils here compare pretty poorly to local authorities abroad. "Local authorities in Ireland have no role in education or transport or tourism or health or policing. All of that would be considered standard fare abroad.
"Nor do they have general competence, where they are allowed to manage their own affairs. We operate under the ultra vires system, where you cannot do anything unless it's prescribed.
"They have no autonomy. They are financially centralised. They do not have their own tax base. Local authorities still need the permission of the relevant minister for many things. There is a begging-bowl mentality," he says.
SO WHERE DO councillors fit into the scheme of things?
The council makes policy and is responsible for drawing up budgets, the development plan and making by-laws, with the executive (the manager and staff) looking after the day-to-day management.
"My own view," says Tom Barry, "is that elected members act as the board of directors representing the people of the country. We, as the executive, have to answer to them."
The relationship is fairly complex, says Quinlivan. "Some councillors are shy to take any decision when it comes to controversial matters like halting sites, landfill sites or water charges. They leave it to the manager to make the decision and they will then criticise the manager."
Brian Gillen was elected to Dublin City Council for Fine Gael in 2004 but was one of at least 13 of his colleagues who stepped down from the council because of pressures of time.
"You very quickly realise the limits of being a councillor once you get in there. There is a lack of authority or self-determination. It's so limited that you do not have very much say in resourcing or making good plans. You are not the master.
"There are layers of civil servants. It's overly zealous in protecting the status quo. You do not get the rate of change or quickness to react," says Gillen.
Veronica Neville, a Fine Gael member of Cork County Council, also elected in 2004, says it was different to what she expected. "There is enormous red tape for even the smallest thing," she says. "A significant amount of time is spent on social issues like housing grants for elderly people and people with disabilities or with dependants with disabilities.
"I was ashamed when I went to a house with a major problem with rat infestation. There are pockets of social housing that are appalling."
Neville says her main function has been as an intermediary. "A lot of my time is matching people with the right people in the county council."
That experience is common. Michael Lynch, a former TD from Oldcastle in Meath, is retiring from his council seat after 42 years' service.
"Ninety-five per cent of people do not know what local government is about. They only see their own problem. Being a councillor is about being able to meet people and listen to their problems," says Lynch.
Connie Ní Fhatharta from An Cheathrú Rua has been a member of Galway County Council since 1991. She also talks of a sense of impotence. "We have no power. The only power that we have is that we put the county plan and the annual budget through. Other than that it's mainly fighting the fight on behalf of our people."
Galway County Council had a reputation in the past for forcing Section Four motions through that led to unsustainable ribbon development of once-off houses.
"There has been no Section Four for 10 years," says Ní Fhatharta. "That day is gone. It worries me that there is the image out there that we are all zoners. That is not true.
Councils are less partisan than the Dáil. "Once the election is over politics is completely out," says Lynch. "We had a tough budget in 1992. We got support from four Fine Gael councillors. It put the county back on its feet.
Mark Deery, a Green councillor in Dundalk, Co Louth, agrees. He says that in the past five years there was only one major decision - relating to the town's market square - that divided councillors along party lines.
He has been one of the few who is very positive. "We are promoting Louth as a centre for clean and green technology and it has been great seeing that develop and being able to have direct access to Green ministers," he says.
Quinlivan believes the system needs reform and that proper financing will be the litmus test. Relying on central government and on dwindling development levies is not satisfactory, he says.
"While nobody wants to have a lot of local taxes, people across Europe are staggered that we are not paying for domestic water. Local authorities are struggling for cash and there is a lack of connection with citizens as well. If they were to pay tax to the local authority, and seeing it come back in services, it would be helpful,"
Both Tierney and Barry believe that some form of metering for water should be introduced.
The Green Paper on local-government reform, commissioned by the Minister for the Environment John Gormley, proposes a directly elected mayor of Dublin, whose powers would include planning, housing, waste, water-provision and waste-water disposal. The mayor would also act as chairman of the Dublin Transport Authority.
It further proposes elected mayors elsewhere and more devolution towards local authorities.
It seems unlikely, however, that the majority partners in central Government will give up the mindset of centralism that lay behind the first Local Government Act in 1898 any time soon.
"Ninety-five per cent of people do not know what local government is about. They only see their own problem