Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2012
433. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will consider providing persons who pay the household charge and property tax with an annual performance indicator of their local authority to show the services it is providing and the value for money it is giving to persons who are funding it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50857/12]
View answerAnnual Service Indicators in Local Authorities reports are compiled by the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) from returns made by local authorities.The reports for 2004-2010 are available on the LGMA website at http://www.lgma.ie/en/publication-category/service-indicator-reports-2004-2010.
As part of the reform programme in the Action Programme for Effective Local Government – Putting People First, a set of performance standards against which local authorities can demonstrate their performance will be put in place. These will be reflected in, or developed from, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), or negotiated agreements with a common understanding about the services to be provided, priorities, responsibilities, performance, etc., which will be developed between Government Departments or, where appropriate, State agencies and local authorities. The SLAs will identify the levels of performance expected and resources available, along with the relevant responsibilities and expectations necessary to enable the required services. Since the focus will be on the performance of the local authorities, the service indicators are being reclassified as performance indicators to enable assessment of a local authority’s overall performance in delivering a particular activity or service and to facilitate evaluating its performance against the relevant performance standard.
The performance standards and performance indicators will also inform and assist in the development of Customer Charters and in monitoring and reporting adherence to the charters.
Increased emphasis will be placed on identifying customers’ expectations and requirements and their experience of service delivery in their local authority. Indicators will also reflect value for money and the cost effective use of resources by local authorities. The reporting of the performance indicators will be structured to facilitate comparison across local authorities (clustered by type/size as appropriate), and changes in the performance of individual local authorities over time. It is intended that performance standards and performance indicators will –
- provide members of the public with more information about what their local authority actually does and on how it is performing, and how this performance is changing over time;
- enable each authority to monitor its progress, assist in the allocation of resources locally and assist Ministers and Departments similarly;
- allow comparative analysis of performance between local authorities, and enable authorities to identify what they need to do in order to raise performance levels to match better performing authorities.
To optimise the benefits of performance standards and performance indicators, local authorities will prepare Annual Service Plans and set targets to be achieved in the delivery of services against each of the performance standards. The service plans, which will cover each service division in each local authority and will set out the decisions taken in relation to the services and levels of standards to which they are expected to be provided, will be adopted by the elected members as a reserved function. It is intended that these plans will be updated and approved annually in parallel with the budgetary process.
The authorities’ Annual Reports will include a comprehensive review of performance of the service plans against the performance standards and will show how –
- targets set at the start of the year have been achieved against performance indicators;
- the authority performed compared to other local authorities, especially those of comparable size, and;
- each local authority is improving its level of service year-on-year.
