Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

12.3.5 The national policy direction and support for CEBs as provided by the
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland
would not be affected by such integration.
12.4 Local Government and County/ City Development Boards
12.4.1 Effective co-ordination of public services at local level is an essential
element in achieving coherent publicly funded service delivery. It was
against that background that multi-agency County/ City Development
Boards (CDBs) were established in 2000. They are led and supported by
county/ city councils and indirectly widen local government’s sphere of
influence in other areas of the public service, such as enterprise, training
and local development. Their key role is one of influencing other
organisations to better co-ordinate local public service delivery. CDBs have
no direct executive powers and have limited financial and other resources.
An outline of the membership of the Boards is at Appendix 11.
12.4.2 A 2008 review of the Boards noted that while CDBs have made some
progress in regard to co-ordination of local service delivery, most notably on
social inclusion, there remains a strong need for ongoing priority and
commitment to CDBs by its member bodies at both national and local level.
The review also made a series of recommendations to strengthen and
develop the Boards (being overseen by a National CDB Group (chaired by a
Minister of State). This includes having a greater focus on the co-ordination
of economic activity at local level through the establishment of CDB
economic development sub committees (now in place). In addition, both the
OECD Review of the Irish Public Service and the Task Force report
‘Transforming Public Services’ recommended that the CDBs should be
strengthened and their co-ordination role reinforced, and that the democratic
legitimacy of elected councils should be maximised in relation to the delivery
of services at local level. ‘Transforming Public Services’ also suggested that
CDBs be encouraged to identify specific joint service initiatives across
agencies for priority implementation (see section 1.6).
12.4.3 The Group recognises the importance of better co-ordination of locally
delivered public services. In the light of the current economic situation and
the resultant tight constraints on resources maximum value for public
funding must be achieved. At the same time the Group accepts that this
presents ongoing challenges and that much more needs to be done by the
member agencies on the CDBs in this regard. Where progress is made by
CDBs, it is often dependent on the commitment by individual Board
members, as opposed to tangible engagement by the members’ parent
agency at national level. In other words, engagement on the achievement
of improved co-ordination is generally not systemic.
12.4.4 There is relatively limited resource sharing between agencies represented
on CDBs to advance the achievement of the agreed shared goals. The
incentivising of good practice is recognised as a powerful tool in influencing
the achievement of good outcomes. International and national experience
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