Submission on Local Government Finance
Thursday, October 28, 2004
The Irish Planning Institute welcomes the undertaking of a major independent review of Local Government finance in Ireland. The IPI is the professional body for planners in Ireland. It has over 500 members who work in both the public and private sectors, and a large proportion of its members who work in the public sector are employed by local authorities.
This review of local government financing is long overdue and is much needed in order to address the very serious difficulties in respect of poorly resourced local government structures and the consequent quality of services they are able to provide.
The Institute has for some time been working with the officials of the Department of the Environment in relation to initiatives to improve the quality of the planning service provided by Local Authorities. For example Mary Moylan Assistant Secretary of the Department, spoke on this subject at the Institute’s annual conference in Galway in 2002.
The issue of quality of service in the planning function cannot be addressed in isolation from the issue of quality of service in Local Government generally, which in turn is directly linked to the serious difficulties and shortcomings in the current local government financing arrangements.
Planning is the most central and fundamental service provided by local government. A significant number of local government functions relate to the physical environment e.g. roads, water, parks, housing etc. Planning is about the management of the process of change in the physical environment.