Sir, - In the recent local elections I was elected to serve on Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. When I was calling door to door I promised, as a first-time candidate, to try and make the council more responsive to local needs and local concerns. I saw this as one of the ways I could tackle voter apathy in a practical way.
In "An Action Programme for the Millennium and Better Local Government", the current and previous government set out their commitment to the restoration of real decision-making and power to local authorities and local people. The Strategic Policy Committees (whereby elected members of the council and members of the local community were to sit together on committees to decide policy on local issues) were to be the cornerstone of this delegation of power to councils and the people.
Imagine my dismay to be informed, within the first couple of days of being elected, that the Minister had written to our council to suspend the appointment of chairpersons of all the Strategic Policy Committees. He stated that a commission had been appointed to review the operation of Strategic Policy Committees. We all know that the appointment of commissions to review operations is organisation-speak for: "Normal service should resume soon but don't hold your breath!"
I would ask the Minister to try to ensure the rapid re-implementation of the Strategic Policy Committees so I can look voters in the eye again and reassure them that things can indeed change for the better! - Yours, etc.,
Eoin Costello, Abberley, Killiney, Co Dublin.