Local politicians are overworked, underpaid and unrepresentative

The question of where Irish government happens matters in its delivery to an electorate demanding greater public services and infrastructure to service an expanding society, economy and population. Yet Ireland is one of the most centralised states in Europe and its local government one of the weakest.
This is paradoxical because comparisons with similar states show many of the electorates big issues, such as housing, taxation, health, social welfare, childcare and transport, could be more effectively – and democratically – delivered at local level.
A 2016 measure of local autonomy ranked Ireland last of 39 countries in Europe, indicating a severe governance and democratic deficit. We spend a comparatively tiny amount at local level and raise even less in revenue. Eight per cent of State revenue is spent locally compared to an EU average of 23 per cent, while Ireland ranks last in EU local revenue raising.
Ireland has 31 local authority areas with about 165,000 citizens per authority. Compare this to Denmark’s 98 with 60,000 citizens each and Portugal’s 308 with 34,000. Put another way, Ireland’s councillors represent 5,196 citizens per councillor, compared to 600 in Belgium, 620 in Spain and 412 in Finland.
As a result, Ireland’s councillors are overworked and underpaid. They are also mostly white, male and better off. That makes them increasingly unrepresentative of a younger, more diverse population in which most women work outside the home and require childcare.
Figures like these emerge from substantial comparative research on the State’s local government. It is now associated with considerable activism by council organisations and trade unions representing people who work there. Their case was supported in a cross-party Seanad report on the future of local democracy last month. After hearing from local representatives, executives, citizens and experts, the report calls for a reimagined local democracy in Ireland. It wants a local democratic taskforce appointed within three months of the new government taking office. It should tackle the reform and strengthening of local government to prevent the relentless process by which it is transformed into a mere local administration of central government.
A valuable accompanying report on local government functions from the Oireachtas library and research service tracks how many of them were removed from 1993 to 2024 in housing, roads, planning, health, fire services, waste management and education. This came on top of an already tightly circumscribed system controlled since the 1930s by executive managers appointed by and responsible to ministers. Councils have legally defined reserved powers, unlike many continental ones with a general responsibility for their area. As the report says: “While it is the norm in many countries for local government to be responsible for education, social welfare, health, economic development, and policing in Ireland many of these services are provided by central government departments or by public or state agencies.”
This further hollowing out of an already weak local democracy was part of the austerity response to the 2008-2012 financial crisis. That its powers should be restored and even transformed was argued in a manifesto by the Association of Irish Local Government during the campaign. They secured support from most political parties.
Yet the party manifestos vary widely on the priority afforded to local government. The Labour Party is most detailed and specific, while Sinn Féin, the Green Party and the Social Democrats make issue and function specific commitments to it. So does Fianna Fáil in a more generalised way, whereas Fine Gael stands over the centralisation it led since 2011.
Irish government and bureaucratic mindsets are so centralised they cannot see how blind they are to the advantages of multilevel governance in planning for an expanding society demanding greater public services. More local democracy and local government better shared with the centre is not a silver bullet; but it would release greater citizen engagement, access and transparency with housing, health and care services. It would provide a legitimate basis for enlarging the tax base. But that would require a cultural revolution in such mindsets and practices.
This blindness is akin to government unwillingness to accept Ireland is a tax haven for multinational companies; to the preference for market driven solutions to public problems; to the failure to initiate large infrastructure planning in an expanding economy and society; and a reluctance to include a shared or united Ireland in such plans. Comparable experience from Europe is often obscured by an instinctive reliance on practices in Britain and Northern Ireland, which suffer from similar weaknesses. That new Ireland should be decentred.
In the bargaining around the formation of the next government there should be room for such a strategic shift in governance. It would be welcome to see stronger local government and democracy become a red line for coalition formation by those who take it most seriously. It is an issue that badly needs political leverage.