Reboot required.
07.23.10
Read this report from the Irish Times.
Fine Gael need to hang their heads in shame. If they had the guts to give us someone other than Enda Kenny as a complete loser leader, I might not have to write this.
In an effort to reduce payroll costs, it argues for the reduction in the number of city and county managers from 34 to 24; directors of service from 240 to 190; and the number of senior and middle managers by at least 15 per cent. This change would in effect mean that some local authority managers would be in charge of two councils.
Mr O’Loughlin said this proposal had the greatest scope to generate savings and could lead to better local governance.
Could lead to better local governance. Could?
Could is not anywhere close enough to being good enough. Before looking at the savings you look at the processes. Here they just want to save money. It could lead to better local governance but I’ll be frank. I doubt it. ONe of the big issues we have with local governance in Ireland is the lack of accountability.
The sentence could as easily read “could lead to chaos as two different local authorities slug it out for favour”. Frankly I see more chance of that given what happened (not) the National Spatial Strategy.
He told RTÉ Radio that some of the changes could be implemented quickly as some county and city managers were on fixed term contracts and because the Croke Park agreement allows for deployment of personnel elsewhere in the public service.
So how much do we save on payroll given that some of them were due to go anyway and we’ll still be paying the others as we shift them around, right?
The group has also recommended that tolling charges be extended from motorways to national roads. It has argued this would be consistent with Government policy on the environment by incentivising road users to use other transport. It would also allow a stream of revenue for local councils to invest in local roads.
I suspect most of the group live in Dublin. What other transport are they suggesting? Bus? Train? Public transport in Dublin is woefully inadequate. Do they not know that it even in itself is worse than public transport everywhere else. Do they not realise how people’s time is money? Do they not know that if you don’t live in Dublin or Cork, this is frankly almost impossible?
While the group has said the distribution of the tolling booths should be equitable, placing them on national roads as well as motorways would be seen as controversial and politically unpopular.
How will they measure equitable? The M50 toll does not act as a deterrent; it acts as a cash cow.
Mr O’Loughlin said the new tolls could be used to fund infrastructure developments on local and national roads and could prove to be good for the environment.
Again, if they are funding roads, how are they good for the environment? He cannot have both his cake and eat it here. Either it deters road usage (in which case why build more?) or it screws people who have not much choice in whether you use the road or not.
The group found the number of senior managers in Dublin and Cork cities was noticeably high compared to other local authority areas.
The population served is noticeably high also.
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Local governance in Ireland needs to be looked at. This is not looking at local governance. Far too much could and very little would in this.