Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

12. Local Government and the Wider Public Service
12.1 Publicly-Funded Services at Local Level
12.1.1 The Terms of Reference of the Group included reporting on proposals to
enhance value for money in the delivery of services at local level (see
section 1.2). This included examining Exchequer savings that could arise
from greater synergies and coordination between local government and a
range of other publicly-funded service providers at local level. The Group
were of the view that local government, as an directly-elected tier of
government, should be given greater responsibility for the provision of local
and community-based services. This principle has guided the Group’s
recommendations in this area.
12.1.2 The following subsections deal specifically with local government
relationships with local development groups and County/ City Enterprise
Boards, as well as coordination arrangements through the County/ City
Development Boards.
12.1.3 In addition to these areas, the Group is also making a series of proposals in
the area of greater data sharing between public bodies at a local level
(including local authorities), as well as proposals concerning the link
between local authorities and Vocational Educational Committees (VECs).
The issues of data sharing and VECs are dealt with in sections 8.7 and 13.2
respectively.
12.2 Local Government and Local Development Bodies
12.2.1 This section deals with the local development companies (LDCs) funded by
the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, including in
particular their relationship with local government. These include urban
Partnerships focusing on social inclusion in the major cities and their rural
counterparts, the integrated (since 1 January 2009) local development
companies which cover both social inclusion in the smaller urban areas and
rural areas, and also the Rural Development Programme. This section also
deals with community development projects (CDPs), mainly located in urban
areas which are also concerned with combating social exclusion. The
County/ City Enterprise Boards for which departmental responsibility lies
with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation are dealt with
separately in section 12.3.
12.2.2 The local development bodies were put in place in the early 1990s to
promote social inclusion, community development and micro enterprise.
For most of the decade they tended in the main to operate outside of local
government structures. However, with the advent of the County/ City
Development Boards in 2000, considerable effort has been made to more
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