Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

senior management staff – for example Dublin city has 52 staff at director of
service level or above, with 11 further staff at this level in Cork city. This
appears to represent an excessive level of senior management staffing
when compared with levels nationally. In this regard, it is recommended
that the director of service level grade of executive manager engineering in
Dublin city be merged into the executive manager grade and rationalised
thereafter. There are currently seven director of service level staff at this
grade in Dublin city.
6.5.3 Within the Dublin region, the Group is aware that new structures are to be
put in place to support the proposed Mayor for Dublin (see section 1.5). It
will be important that these structures are based on an overall rationalisation
of management systems across Dublin. The Group recommends that new
structures should draw on existing resources from within the four Dublin
authorities and in particular, Dublin City Council. In this context, consistent
with the joint administrative approach envisaged nationally, appropriate
broadening of existing responsibilities of management posts in new
structures must be considered.
Figure 6.6 – Staffing per 1,000 Population (Larger City Areas), end-2009
1 2. 8
Source: Survey of County and City Councils, 2010
6.6 Staff Ratios
1 1.9
Du blin Cit y Co rk C ity
6.6.1 Thirty seven percent of local authority staff work in administrative areas. On
average, director-level posts and above account for 0.8% of all staff;
however this varies from 0.5% to 1.5% across local authorities (see Figure
6.7). Below this, senior management grades (including 273 staff at senior
executive officer level and 615 staff at administrative officer level) account
for between 3.2% and 8.1% of staff, with the sectoral average at 4.6%.
Other managerial grades range across local authorities from 7-16% of total
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