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Local Authority Members' Remit

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 May 2014

Thursday, 15 May 2014

Ceisteanna (11, 34)

Anthony Lawlor

Ceist:

11. Deputy Anthony Lawlor asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the measures being taken in his Department to devolve powers to local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21563/14]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Ray Butler

Ceist:

34. Deputy Ray Butler asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the measures being taken in his Department to devolve powers to local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21494/14]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (12 píosaí cainte)

I appreciate the Minister is here to take this question himself as he was a city councillor himself and will appreciate my point. Heretofore, many councillors were not aware of their powers. I would like to see more powers devolved to councillors for roads programmes. When I was a councillor in the late 1990s, there was a three year roads programme which councillors could debate. Nowadays, it seems to be cloak-and-dagger type stuff with engineers, who mostly are inside an office looking at Google Maps, deciding roads programmes with no input from councillors who are on the ground. Will the Minister indicate if there will be increased powers for local authority councillors with regard to decisions on roads programmes?

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 34 together.

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, has led the most significant overhaul in the powers and functions of local authority structures in recent history. He deserves great credit for this and I am keen to support his agenda of devolving functions to local authorities where it is appropriate to do so. The impact of his work is that the councillors who will be elected next week will have significantly more power and influence on local matters.

My Department's principal engagement with local authorities is on roads matters. This year I have given local authorities increased flexibility in the use of grants for regional and local roads. I am supportive of giving further discretion in that area to local authorities in the future. This may be to the extent of allocating a single block roads grant to each local authority or indeed including it in a single overall grant from central government. The merit in such a move would be to give local authorities real choice in deciding what they wanted prioritise in their own county, rather than such decisions being made by me or my successors in the Department's offices in Kildare Street.

In the maritime sector, I have already transferred five harbour authorities to local authorities. The national ports policy recommends that control of the State ports of Drogheda, Dún Laoghaire, Galway, New Ross and Wicklow also be devolved from central to local government led structures. This reflects the regional nature of those bodies and their move in tourism and leisure amenity. I expect to bring proposals to the Government in the coming weeks for legislation to give effect to these recommendations.

Proposals for the rural transport programme will see local authorities having a role for the first time in transport planning. They will carry out strategic transport needs assessment in respect of their functional areas and develop annual transport plans for submission to the National Transport Authority, NTA.

The local area hackney licence, introduced by the NTA in December 2013, is designed to facilitate low-cost entry to the hackney market for transport in rural areas. In applying for a licence, the applicant must submit an analysis of the need for the proposed service carried out by or on behalf of the relevant local authority and confirmation of the need for the services by the relevant local authority.

The role of local authorities in tourism development will be reflected in my forthcoming tourism policy statement. The policy will recognise the roles of local authorities in engaging communities, local enterprise support, providing tourism infrastructure and ensuring an attractive environment. Their role in community engagement underpins the community tourism initiative announced in April. This partnership between Fáilte Ireland, Irish Public Bodies Mutual Insurances Limited and the 34 local authorities, will provide an annual fund of €1 million over the next three years to support up to 700 local community-based events and festivals each year.

I have identified responsibility for local sports partnerships as a function for consideration for devolution to local authorities. Proposals will be submitted to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in the context of establishing Sport Ireland.

Will the Minister inform those newly elected members of local authorities next week of their functions and roles on roads programmes? Many of them are not aware of their roles and defer a lot of decision-making to local authority management.

Deputy Lawlor’s suggestion is an excellent one as the powers held by councillors are contained in many different Acts from maritime to local government to roads legislation, not one single Act. Rather than me just doing it for roads, the best action would be for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to produce a small booklet for newly elected councillors informing them of their powers and under which legislation they are contained. This might be useful because the details of their powers are all over the place from planning to other legislation.

The Minister should be careful as he might burst their bubble. Many of them think they have a lot of power.

It would have to be a large booklet.

Yes, some councillors might prefer not to have these powers. I am amused from time to time about the number of representations I get from councillors about matters such as speed limits which they decide, not me. There will be a whole new set of councillors next week and, hopefully, they will figure out what their job is.

There will be outgoing councillors too. Is Deputy Lawlor happy with that reply?

Will he be happy next week though?

One of my concerns is that many local authorities are farming out more of their work for parks, local authority housing renovation or road maintenance for different reasons. I am firmly opposed to this because in the past, when local authorities had their own workers, it worked well.

Recently, Fingal County Council voted to oppose the election of a mayor for Dublin and the devolving of power to that proposed office. Has the Minister made any further representations on this? A mayor with some powers and a bit of bite is a good idea.

It is up to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to take stock about the proposed Dublin mayor and decide on how he wishes to proceed on that. It will not go away as an issue and, at some point, the people of Dublin will be asked for their view on it. I regret that this was not done on this occasion as a result of a decision of Fingal County Council.

I have a mixed view of the outsourcing of public service functions. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes, it does not. Sometimes outsourcing does not always work and is not always better. Sometimes, it is and can work very well. Across the public service, even in agencies under my Department’s remit, because they are so constrained by the employment control framework and cannot take on additional staff, they have no other option but to outsource. This is regrettable because outsourcing should happen because it makes sense and there is a strong business case for doing so, not just because they have to as they are not allowed to take on additional staff. That is a matter the Government as a whole can consider in the coming months and the next year, now that it appears the budgetary situation is starting to improve.

Written Answers follow Adjournment.
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