A major reform of local government, including the scrapping of the four existing Dublin local authorities, will be a key demand of the Green Party in post-election coalition talks, it emerged last night, writes Mark Hennessy,Political Correspondent, in Galway
Under the Green Party plan the four Dublin councils would be replaced by one super authority led by a directly elected mayor, while regional authorities elsewhere would be given significantly enhanced powers.
Directly elected mayors enjoying strong executive powers would become chief executives for a five-year term of the remaining existing county and borough councils - in place of the current system of city and county managers.
Party leader Trevor Sargent told the Greens' ardfheis in Galway last night that the plan is heavily modelled on London, where the mayor, Ken Livingstone, was re-elected for a second term.
The implementation of the reforms would be a key demand of the Greens in talks on a new coalition government, leading Green Party TDs Eamon Ryan and Dan Boyle made clear last night. "One of our first principles has been to try to restore powers back to the local level. These policies will do exactly that," said Mr Ryan.
If elected to government the party will seek to have the plan implemented in time for the 2009 local elections.
Opening the ardfheis, Mr Sargent said the Greens would remain below "a glass ceiling" until they get "around the Cabinet table".
"To break that glass ceiling - to reform local government for local communities - we must first get into government at national level," he said.
"We have seen effective local government at work in London, where Labour, and, indeed, the Green Party control the Greater London Council," Mr Sargent told delegates.
Dublin South TD Mr Ryan said the four Dublin local authorities were too small, were competing with each other and "do not have sufficient size and scale to deliver". Once replaced by a super-council, a network of smaller councils "operating at ward level" would deal with local issues in Dublin.
The existing regional authorities for the rest of the country, which are based on the European Parliament constituencies' map, were "currently toothless and without influence", he added.
They would be given major powers to set strategic planning, waste management and transport priorities.
However, once regional priorities have been set, planning applications would continue to be dealt with by county councils, which would be ceded other powers over time from central government.
The creation of directly elected mayors, copying the London model, would attract high-calibre people to run for office, Mr Ryan said.
"They would have five-year terms with real powers. They would have a powerful voice and they would have to make their case to the people," he told The Irish Times last night.
All of the existing Green Party TDs had served on local authorities "and all of us have the clear sense of frustration that it isn't working as it should be".
In his speech, Mr Sargent outlined the party's proposal to scrap commercial rates, which currently raise €1 billion annually, and replace them with a local site tax applied to all properties, but not homes, farms or State land - though it would apply to holiday homes. This would raise €2 billion, the Greens say.
"The Green Party would ensure the property speculators would pay their way, instead of making businesses carry the burden of rates," he told delegates.
Legislation that has taken powers away from local authorities to deal with waste, and which has favoured incineration and large landfill dumps, would be repealed, Mr Sargent said.