Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 December 2015
635. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the mechanism in place to provide oversight of the work of special policy committees in local authorities and to measure their successes and failures. [46129/15]
View answerPart 7 of the Local Government Act 2001 provides the legal framework for the establishment and operation of Strategic Policy Committees (SPCs) to consider matters connected with the formulation, development, monitoring and review of policy which relates to the functions of a local authority and to advise the authority on those matters.
The SPC system is intended to give councillors and relevant sectoral interests an opportunity for full involvement in the policy-making process from the early stages, when policy options are more fluid. The council is the final decision making authority, and it is the task of the SPCs, as committees of the council, to advise and assist the council in its work.
Under section 54(2) of the 2001 Act, my Department issued guidelines on SPCs in May 2014. The objective of these guidelines was to create a common general framework for the establishment and operation of SPCs and to assist and support local authorities in this task. However, subject to this general framework, the guidelines allow a measure of discretion to local authorities in establishing an SPC structure which takes account of local circumstances and which best meets local needs.
SPCs are encouraged in the guidelines to adopt a multi-annual work programme linked to the local authority’s corporate plan and to update this regularly as necessary. Ensuring compliance with the legal framework and implementation of the guidelines, as well as assessing the performance of individual SPCs, is ultimately a matter for local authorities themselves, including the corporate policy group in each authority.
