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Post by Young Ireland on Sept 8, 2015 18:10:08 GMT
Does anyone have an opinion on the decision to merge Cork City and County Councils? I've no objection to this in principle, and I particularly like the idea of the "federal county" structure that the committee is proposing, but the problem is will it ever be implemented in its entirety? The reforms of 2012 contained a lot of flowery language about empowering local government, yet in the intervening period, local authorities have even less power with the advent of SUSI, Irish Water et al., so things are going backwards IMHO. I would have liked to have seen Cork divided up into several new counties a la Dublin along the lines of. - A Cork metropolitan council.
- Blackwater, covering North Cork, with the capital in Mallow.
- West Cork, with the capital in Bandon.
As for Dublin, I think the Blanchardstown-Castleknock-Mulhuddart area should get its own council, as should Tallaght, Lucan, Clondalkin, Dun Laoighre and Rathdown (Dundrum). Has anyone else an opinion?
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Post by Ranger on Sept 8, 2015 20:51:38 GMT
I remember hearing about plans to make Tallaght a separate city from Dublin a while back since it has a bigger population than most other cities and large towns in the country but nothing ever came of it. I see no reason not to give the others councils, although one difficulty under the current system is that city-wide changes to local legislation can be vetoed by a single council, so if the system remains more councils will probably ensure that nothing ever happens. (For example, one of the four current councils in Dublin, I think it was Fingal, voted against the other three and prevented a motion that was meant to make the Lord Mayor of Dublin an elected position, iirc simply to stick it to the other councils over a different issue they didn't get their way in). Dun Laoighre and Rathdown is actually one of the council areas right now; there's also Dublin City (meaning the centre and central suburbs) and South Dublin. Taking a quick glance at that central council, it's depressing to see the predominance of Sinn Féin as well as the massive number of small left-wing parties, especially given that there are no similar small centre-right parties; social conservatives really don't have a lot going for ourselves in Dublin, altough granted it's more liberal than elsewhere: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_City_Council
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Post by Ranger on Sept 8, 2015 21:06:37 GMT
Just looking at these results from the last local election now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_local_elections,_2014 I was out of the country at the time so I didn't pay too much attention. Note that outside of the four major parties, there are fifteen small parties. Looking at their pages, 14 of them are left wing to varying degrees (most on the far left). The exception is DDI, although their page says that they have already had The Split, apparently because the leadership was too autocratic, although that might just be the spin whoever wrote the Wikipedia article was putting on it.
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Post by Young Ireland on Sept 8, 2015 21:13:27 GMT
I remember hearing about plans to make Tallaght a separate city from Dublin a while back since it has a bigger population than most other cities and large towns in the country but nothing ever came of it. I see no reason not to give the others councils, although one difficulty under the current system is that city-wide changes to local legislation can be vetoed by a single council, so if the system remains more councils will probably ensure that nothing ever happens. (For example, one of the four current councils in Dublin, I think it was Fingal, voted against the other three and prevented a motion that was meant to make the Lord Mayor of Dublin an elected position, iirc simply to stick it to the other councils over a different issue they didn't get their way in). Dun Laoighre and Rathdown is actually one of the council areas right now; there's also Dublin City (meaning the centre and central suburbs) and South Dublin. Taking a quick glance at that central council, it's depressing to see the predominance of Sinn Féin as well as the massive number of small left-wing parties, especially given that there are no similar small centre-right parties; social conservatives really don't have a lot going for ourselves in Dublin, altough granted it's more liberal than elsewhere: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_City_CouncilThanks Ranger, nice to have a second opinion. Regards Fingal, part of the reason I think it should be split is because there is a world of difference between Dublin 15 and the rest of the county (the area where opposition to the mayor was strongest). I would envisage the latter being completely independent from the wider Dublin region, allowing greater room for manoeuvre regards the directly elected mayor. As for DLR, I probably didn't express myself too clearly there: I think that the old Dun Laoighre Corporation should be revived, with another council for the Dundrum/Sandyford area (Rathdown). As for Dublin City, alas it is to be expected, as it is very skewed towards the Northside, which is generally more working class than the other side of the Liffey. I think social conservatives are making a mistake by focusing their efforts on Dublin: rural people might have stronger party loyalties, but if we can win them around, then diverting our focus to outside the capital would be worth it, though a lot of time and network-building would be required.
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Post by Young Ireland on Sept 8, 2015 21:17:41 GMT
Just looking at these results from the last local election now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_local_elections,_2014 I was out of the country at the time so I didn't pay too much attention. Note that outside of the four major parties, there are fifteen small parties. Looking at their pages, 14 of them are left wing to varying degrees (most on the far left). The exception is DDI, although their page says that they have already had The Split, apparently because the leadership was too autocratic, although that might just be the spin whoever wrote the Wikipedia article was putting on it. Very interesting, thanks Ranger. Though SKIA are to the left, its leader Michael Gleeson is pro-life and pro-family, and so would be worth supporting. I'm not sure if RSF are straightforwardly left-wing either: I'd imagine that some of their support is well to the right. I wouldn't vote for them if I was paid though.
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Post by irishconfederate on Apr 28, 2016 18:31:49 GMT
Got a book recently: 'From Big Government to Local Government' by Tom Barrington.
First glance at it and I want to post that this book is probably one of the most important books relating to today's Ireland that I have come across.
His book called something like 'The Irish Administrative System' had a review in one of the leading papers in Ireland at the time it was published that said that it was the most important book written in the last fifty years in Ireland.
I'm guessing from the looks of 'From Big Government...' that this review- of what I think is the following book- will be proven right.
Just posting to encourage everyone else to have a look at him.....
and if anyone knows anything about Tom Barrington would be good to hear.
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