Local Fine Gael Councillor Neale Richmond, has described the Budget announcement of establishing another local government review body as a classic exercise in Government delaying any major reform decisions.
The Government’s announcement comes 20 months after the publication Green Paper on Local Government Reform
“The people want action. They want better local government that provides better services. What they don’t want is another tax payer funded review group to spend another year writing a report that won’t get acted upon. The shelves in the Department of Environment are literally creaking under the weight of decades of review reports on local government.
“One of the main frustrations expressed by people during Fine Gael’s recent business forum tour was that local government doesn’t work effectively as it should. Regional development is all talk and no action because local communities are not given the power to make decisions for themselves. This is a situation that suits Minister Gormley and the Green Party perfectly. The Minister is obsessed with micro managing the affairs of local government. That is why he is establishing yet another review group to delay making any significant changes to local government.
“It is 20 months since the Green Paper on Local Government Reform was published. The only follow up action has been to establish another review group.
“Budget 2010 is a failure because it missed the perfect opportunity to reform the public sector. Now Minister Gormley is equally a failure by failing to use the budget to reform local government.”