Madam, – Ger Doyle rightly bemoans the lack of progress on local authority reform (May 30th) specifically the reluctance to reduce the number of such bodies by at least half.
Clearly, any such reduction would improve services to the public, eliminate waste and duplication, and provide representation based on natural regional divisions rather than strictly on a county boundary basis. Win/win/win, in other words.
In my own area, we would be much better served by an amalgamation of the administration of Sligo, Leitrim and North Roscommon into one body, but that won’t happen. So why won’t logic prevail? It’s as simple as it is regrettable: the politicians tasked with the reform sit on the apex of a pyramid whose base consists of a myriad of town and county councils populated by wannabe TDs and senators.
What national politician in his right mind would get rid of that support base? So, while we are faced with paying more and more for a diminishing and increasingly inefficient public service at local level, the notion of real local authority reform must remain a distant pipe dream.
Unless of course the IMF takes a closer look at that particular budget area! – Yours, etc,