Fingal councillors have no love for Dublin dominance

Fingal is different. Until 20 years ago Fingal County Council didn't exist, it didn't even have a name. The area that now makes up the local authority was part of Dublin county council until 1994 and was known just as "the north county".

Councillors who represented the north county on the old local authority say they were marginalised and starved of funding by councillors representing wealthier areas closer to the city, such as Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock. A common complaint from councillors was that they couldn’t even get a sewer pipe north of the airport.

Population
In those 20 years, the area has been transformed. Towns such as Swords, Balbriggan and Blanchardstown have vastly expanded to the extent that Fingal has the second largest population of any local authority area, not only in the Dublin region, but the whole State.

It has developed an impressive rates base and is financially well-managed, as evidenced by the fact that it gets the lowest subvention from central Government, receiving €1.66 per head of population from the local government fund, compared to €5.06 in the Dublin City Council area and €260.47 per head in Leitrim.

A quick glance at a map shows Fingal is about the same size as the three other Dublin local authorities put together. Yet despite this, and despite having a population second only to Dublin city, it has the lowest number of councillors of the four Dublin authorities. This will change with the next local elections when there will be the same number of seats in Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown.

Fingal councillors have been pilloried for their decision to veto the Dublin mayor plans, and for allowing themselves to be the stalking horse for a Cabinet which, despite having election manifestos pledging to introduce a directly elected mayor, would appear to have not wanted the plebiscite to go ahead.

The 16 councillors in Fingal who have denied 840,000 people the right to vote, did so largely because they felt they were protecting their own county, one of the few in the State to financially wash its own face, from being subsumed back into the old Dublin county council system.

Independent
It was best articulated by Independent councillor Anne Devitt, who sat on the old authority. "It was only when Fingal County Council was established, when the focus came from both councillors and management on to the economic development of the Fingal area, that we actually got the infrastructure that we needed and from that we got a strong economic base," she said.

“I see nothing that allays my fear that if we adopt this proposal we will end up being the poor relative again.”

This was echoed by Labour's Tom Kelleher who said the mayor would always look towards the city or "turn right at the airport", which happens to account for one-fifth of Fingal's rates base.

And if ever there was evidence that Fingal sees itself not as part of Dublin but as a separate county, just like Meath or Kildare, it was the words of Labour councillor Gerry McGuire, who said there would be “no chance of getting a pothole fixed” in rural Fingal if there was a Dublin mayor.

The plebiscite has been blocked, but Lord Mayor of Dublin Oisín Quinn said given the public support indicated in surveys, and given that 98 out of 130 councillors voted in favour, the Government will “look hopelessly out of touch” if they ignore the issue in the future .

Fingal councillors are unlikely to be swayed.