ADRIAN J. ENGLISH,
Madam, - Richard B Haslam, (February 17th), writing in defence of the Local Government Environmental Bill 2003, states that "it should be stressed that charges for local government services are unique in that they are publicly debated by democratically elected members, unlike those other bodies to whose decision-making process the public do not have access. The manager is answerable in public to the elected council. . ."
He goes on to say that "the proposal in the ... Environmental Bill is
. . .to avoid a repetition of the frequent occurrences which threaten the existence of a democratically elected council in relation to adoption of its annual budget".
As a former county manager, Mr Haslam is doubtless aware that under the existing legislation a county manager can request the Minister to suspend a "democratically elected council" if it refuses to rubber-stamp his (or her) proposals with regard to rates or other forms of local taxation, including "service charges".
It is the proposal in the current Bill to remove even the existing feeble powers of criticism of the almost unlimited powers of county managers by the democratically elected members of local authorities which render it so obnoxious and so terrifying in its anti-democratic implications.
The matter is however, alas largely academic as the Bill in question has passed its second stage and seems now destined to become law.
In this context, it is perhaps relevant to question whether we should abandon the hypocrisy of an effectively non-existent "local democracy" in a country with a total population less than that of a large city and acknowledge that all power ultimately resides in central government. - Yours, etc.,
ADRIAN J. ENGLISH, Kilcolman Court, Glenageary, Co Dublin.