Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

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administrative structures across county / city areas, and greater integration of administrative structures between town and county. The question of joint management structures between certain county areas is more fully addressed in section 6. Much of the remainder of this section addresses the question of integration of administrative structures between county and town. 5.2 Financial Supports for Elected Members 5.2.1 The amount provided by local authorities in 2009 for Representational Payments to local Councillors was €18.6 million, while that provided for expenses and allowances was €24.5 million. 5.2.2 The level of payments made to elected members has been reduced over the past two years as a result of: • The reduction of remuneration of all public servants and the application of the pension levy to the Representational Payment; • The reduction in the rates of travel and subsistence allowance rates for public servants; and • The application by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government of a cap on the overall amount that a local authority can provide in its budget for attendance by councillors at conferences, seminars and other events. 5.2.3 In line with the approach to public sector spending generally, there is a need to continue to keep these expenses under review to ensure that they remain reasonable and proportionate. 5.3 County and Town 5.3.1 As noted in section 1.4, there are two distinct tiers of local government in Ireland – at town council and at county/ city council level. Each is directly elected. 5.3.2 The 34 county and city councils are the primary units of local government under Irish law, and designated as such under the Local Government 2001 Act. Within the counties there are 80 town councils – 5 titled as borough councils and the remainder as town councils. 5.3.3 Two further groups at town council level can be identified. The first group, referred to in this report as ‘rating town councils’, include the five borough councils and 49 of the town councils, and are equivalent for most practical purposes and for the most part have the same range of functions assigned to them by law. Each of these town councils also has exclusive rating jurisdiction within its own area. Boroughs and rating town councils have responsibility for planning, housing, local roads, amenity and other miscellaneous functions in their own areas. In practice, many functions 46
statutorily vested in certain rating town councils are actually carried out by the relevant county council. 5.3.4 A second group consists of ‘non-rating town councils’ – these are the 26 town councils that were formerly known as Town Commissioners before 2002. These town councils have a very limited range of functions and a consequential low level of expenditure and staffing. Almost all functions in these towns are the responsibility of the county council. In practice, the role of the non-rating town councils is largely representational. 5.3.5 This distinction between the functions of rating and non-rating town councils is clear from the respective budgets of town council areas. For example in 2009, rating town councils had aggregated budgeted expenditure of €344 million for a population base of 451,259 giving an average spend of €762 per capita. Non-rating town councils had aggregated budgeted expenditure of €2,785,280 for a population base of 124,323 giving an average spend of €22 per capita. 5.3.6 Central Statistics Office data show a growing urbanisation of Ireland. Census 2006 highlighted the fact that the population in urban areas (i.e. in towns with a population of 1,500 or more) has increased at every census since the foundation of the State, and had reached 61% of the population by 2006. Whilst the cities of Dublin, Cork, and Limerick lost population share since Census 2002, the trend of increasing urbanisation is most evident in the other towns. Many towns have expanded beyond their legally defined boundaries. Revisions of the legally defined boundaries tend to lag behind development. 5.4 Town Council Personnel 5.4.1 The county manager for a county council is also the manager for any town councils in its functional area. In practice, a ‘town manager’ is often appointed by the county manager (often drawn from the senior management team of the county council) to perform the town council managerial function. In the case of a small number of larger town and borough councils, the county manager continues to perform this function. There is no additional remuneration for these responsibilities. 5.4.2 The executive manager for the town council is the town clerk. Town clerks in rating town councils are in many cases full-time positions and the town council often has a staffing complement to discharge their functions. The staffing grade for the position of town clerk varies amongst local authorities depending on size. In the large majority of cases, the county council area engineer doubles up as town engineer. The county manager may transfer/ rotate staff in the town councils to any other local authority under his/her control. A review of the staffing complements of rating town councils carried out by the Group identified considerable variation in staffing levels employed by town councils. The level of variation depended on the extent to which work was carried out in-house or by the county council for the town area. 47
Page 1 and 2: Report of the Local Government Effi
Page 3 and 4: 5. Organisational Efficiency Issues
Page 5 and 6: 14. Recommendations 14.1 Recommenda
Page 7 and 8: associated Government Statement, ne
Page 9 and 10: more focussed than previously on mu
Page 11 and 12: ating town councils is largely repr
Page 13 and 14: • The provision of quality custom
Page 15 and 16: 1.7 Compliance Requirements on Loca
Page 17 and 18: 2.1 National Public Finances 2. Bud
Page 19 and 20: Figure 2.2 - Total Local Authority
Page 21 and 22: evenue were needed for the local go
Page 23 and 24: Figure 2.3 - Sources of Local Autho
Page 25 and 26: Figure 2.4 -Sources of Local Author
Page 27 and 28: Figure 2.5 - Local Authority Curren
Page 29 and 30: Payroll Expenses Table 2.4 - Breakd
Page 31 and 32: 2. Reintroducing domestic water cha
Page 33 and 34: Income €m € 1,600.0 € 1,400.0
Page 35 and 36: 3. Local Government Experience of E
Page 37 and 38: maintenance are provided by the cou
Page 39 and 40: well as reductions in the number of
Page 41 and 42: 4. Context - Looking Forward 4.1 Na
Page 43 and 44: 4.2.6 Aside from keeping costs down
Page 45: 5. Organisational Efficiency Issues
Page 49 and 50: 5.5.6 Roads are classified into nat
Page 51 and 52: the majority of town councils, a pl
Page 53 and 54: 5.7 Other Local Bodies 5.7.1 A smal
Page 55 and 56: • County council offices / area o
Page 57 and 58: Figure 6.1 - Local Authority Staff
Page 59 and 60: Figure 6.2 - Staffing per 1,000 Pop
Page 61 and 62: Figure 6.5 - Staffing Per 1,000 Pop
Page 63 and 64: Cluster Data Cluster Mayo Roscommon
Page 65 and 66: senior management staff - for examp
Page 67 and 68: ut this figure varies from 22% to 5
Page 69 and 70: eplacement with lower level staff w
Page 71 and 72: Corporate Services, HR, IT, and Fin
Page 73 and 74: to provide services in the corporat
Page 75 and 76: Recommendations: 6.11.1 In summary,
Page 77 and 78: 7.1 Local Government Audit 7. Value
Page 79 and 80: through open recruitment. Opportuni
Page 81 and 82: the Director and relevant local gov
Page 83 and 84: 7.6.3 Local authorities should cons
Page 85 and 86: 8. Shared Services 8.1 Shared Servi
Page 87 and 88: 8.2.6 Many parts of the United Stat
Page 89 and 90: 8.4 Shared ‘Back Office’ Servic
Page 91 and 92: 8.4.12 For example, recruitment to
Page 93 and 94: approach which will be used to asse
Page 95 and 96: enefits in terms of pooling resourc
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while also improving the service fo
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Implementation Group suggested in s
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9.2.4 The Local Government e-Procur
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forms are now captured online. This
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Table 9.1 - Non-Pay Items Procured
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9.5.10 LAQuotes is used by the vast
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sectoral level, to promote exchange
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10.1 Housing 10. Efficiencies in Pr
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10.1.9 Two issues arise in this res
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that may arise in this respect as p
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the new Housing and Sustainable Com
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10.2.6 To date, the emphasis of tol
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10.2.14 The Group also noted the la
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• Allocating grants to improve th
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10.3.11 It would also facilitate th
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consumption (see also section 9 in
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Financial Summary: Through a combin
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current levels of resourcing for pl
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educe the number of such transactio
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Financial Summary: Through a combin
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in the trend of rationalisation of
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Table 10.1 - Motor Taxation Classes
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detail in issuing licences. Motor t
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11.1 Treasury Management 11. Other
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for the overdraft, has the potentia
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• The online Roadworks Control sy
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management, etc. Use of professiona
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• Projects to streamline existing
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12. Local Government and the Wider
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significant administrative overhead
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City Enterprise Boards with county/
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suggests that financial incentives
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13. Cost Recovery and Revenue Issue
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13.1.11 The Group considers that th
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Minister for Education and Skills t
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legislation provides that arrears o
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Recommendations: 13.5.1 In summary,
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14.1 Recommendations 14. Recommenda
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25. Financial performance indicator
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Housing 48. Housing sections within
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Planning monitoring by other public
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Local Government and the Wider Publ
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that just because these recommendat
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Appendix 1 - List of Submissions Re
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Appendix 2 - Local Government Effic
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Gross Current Income by Source and
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County Councils Housing and Buildin
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Town Councils Housing and Building
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Non-Rating Town Councils (1) Paymen
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Regional Assembly Payments Receipts
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Local Authority Current Expenditure
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Town Council Population Size (Censu
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Appendix 5 - Local Government Net B
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Former Town Commissioners 2010 Net
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Appendix 7 - Performance Indicators
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Appendix 9 - Unaccounted for Water
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Appendix 11 - Membership of County
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Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

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