Dempsey decides to postpone local elections to 1999

The local elections scheduled for next June have been postponed until 1999 so that the main elements of a reform programme can first be put in place.

Announcing the decision yesterday, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government said he would bring legislation before the Oireachtas to allow the 12month postponement, which would mean the "general shape" of the reform plan would be established before the next poll. Mr Dempsey was addressing the annual lunch of the General Council of County Councils, where his announcement was warmly applauded.

The Minister also told councillors he would seek the first opportunity for a referendum aimed at giving constitutional recognition to local government. This would include a provision to fix the maximum intervals between local elections, putting them on the same footing as Dail elections, he said.

The councillors also heard that reforms would take note of the latest census returns which showed that many local electoral areas were "seriously out of kilter" with shifts in population.

"Virtually all the major local authorities have internal variations of at least 10 per cent above or below the average councillor/ population ratio - in some cases significantly higher," Mr Dempsey added.

The reform programme, which starts in January and runs for five years, will produce a "newly invigorated" local government system, he said.

The Minister said that "in many ways, letting the elections go ahead is the easy option". It would be understandable if the public responded by saying that politicians "always find excuses to postpone local elections", and he had some sympathy with the argument that such postponements weakened the mandate of local politicians.

This was why he was proposing that constitutional recognition, complete with fixed intervals between elections, be part of the reform process. He also promised that the changes would give councillors the opportunity to become "genuine policy-makers" with "the necessary resources - financial and otherwise - to do the job properly".

The Minister's comments were welcomed by the chairwoman of the general council, Ms Connie Hanniffy. But she urged that the reform programme should also take account of the greatly increased workload of county councillors and compensate them accordingly.

The Fine Gael Chief Whip, Mr Sean Barrett, condemned the decision to postpone the elections, calling it "contemptible" and "self-serving". He claimed the deferment was "clearly designed to provide the Progressive Democrats with the time they desperately need to reconstruct their party following the verdict of the people at the June election".

The Sinn Fein TD, Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain, said the postponement was "an insult to the electorate" which highlighted the lack of real democracy at local level. "There is no reason why the necessary reforms cannot be introduced in time."

Democratic Left said if the Government was serious about reform it would bring proposals before the Dail well in advance of the summer. The party's spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said it had been almost 20 years since local elections were last held on schedule.