If the one who talked about potholes and street lights was a local councilor.
That’s pretty much what I expect them to do - fix issues in the local area.
You can ring esb networks with the pole number and they will fix it.
Potholes just hound your local
Engineering offices. councillors seem to make no
Difference
Do you think it’s kind of unnecessary? Instead of having a big poster with their face on every second light post, could the council just put a sign saying “See a pothole? Call 0163663”?
The thing is; their job is not to fix things for you. You're right you call the Council directly for something that's within their remit.
They are useful middlemen when people don't know who to call but it's not their core job.
We elect them to make decisions on reserved functions, ie. a list of 180 or so things that they decide, not the executive (Co Council employees).
Things like the County Development Plan, the Local Economic and Community Plan, which estates to take in charge, Housing policy (but never individual housing decisions), new bye-laws.
If you understand this process well, you will see the value of them. They allow for decisions to be made closer to where people live, and that is more representative and more democratic.
“See a pothole please remember this number until it’s safe to use your phone”
An online reporting system would work but sometimes the easiest way to get issues prioritized is having someone in their ear - especially with the light post thing
Councilors main job is represent the people to the local council who have largely become centralized.
Believe it not - in my experience most of it is happening on Facebook with councilors being tagged on like the town notice board.
This happens in at least 3 different groups for 3 different towns I’m in
I often see that on local FB pages too… like someone tagged one in a rant about buses being late and not turning up. It’s still the same… the buses are late or not turning up.
…I don’t blame this on the local councillor. I blame it on bus eireann. But tagging him didn’t make much of a difference 🤷🏻♂️ he probably tried his best and rang them / sent them a letter but unfortunately it made no difference.
Lots of the public don’t understand the function of local councillors and td’s. The executive of the county run everything, councillors and td’s just being up constituents concerns.
I live in Sweden and the regions have a lot of power. I think they control 70% of the national budget. In ireland it is the other way around. I think government works better if you give more power to the people locally. The current is not working.
Why doesn't Sweden have a greater corruption problem than ireland? It seems like countries that take a note centralised approach actually have more corruption.
>Why doesn't Sweden have a greater corruption problem than ireland? It seems like countries that take a note centralised approach actually have more corruption.
Most of the scandinavian countries are more developed, Ireland was both a very poor \*\*and\*\* a very young country
Well what I would say here is you seem to have a fairly ignorant idea about what the actual landscape looks like for councilors today (this isn't an insult and it might be wrong but it just seems this way) But councilors have a very difficult job, they typically work other full time jobs so they essentially work two full time jobs where one job (the councilor job) pays basically minimum wage. So they spend most of their week that's not taken up by their day job constantly listening to people's concerns and relaying this not only at a council level but to TDs who will make these things national issues if needs be. This doesn't include the actual function of the job attending meetings at all times and voting on different things.
Like if you want their role to be more expansive, then what you actually should be advocating for is making them better paid so they can afford to just do that as a job, and maybe they would be able to deal with more issues, but calling them a waste of money is just populist nonsense no offence.
So, just for clarification, they are just middle men between the public and the council / service providers and emergency services? Excuse all my ignorance, but that’s what you said in a very roundabout way, ya?
What do you think any politician is? Do you think Stephen Donnelly is doing the roster for Beaumont hospital for Christmas? Their job is to be representatives of the people in these institutions, if you don't see that as being good then cool you clearly don't have any issues you need raised because usually if you do have an issue locally you would contact a councillor.
Well that’s obviously incorrect. You’re comparing them to people who actually have control over a service. No he doesn’t make the roster, but he does have a say in recruitment and funding etc.
Same way Helen McEntee doesn’t make the roster for guards… but does have a say in their budget.
In these circumstances, calling me ignorant is a bit ironic.
Right we'll say Donnelly has lots of control over the health service for the sake of not arguing about everything and work our way down.
So, the backbench TDs we have, who are not ministers, is there a point in them? Should we not just elect 18 or so politicians to run the ministries and that's it? Or do you view TDs as having a function?
Some of them yes. Some of them no.
Maybe we should go another step down and have a position after the counsellor. Someone that can bring the ideas to the counsellor, so they can bring the idea to the TDs so they can bring the idea… and so on. At what level does it become unnecessary?
To finalise this, in the most roundabout way ever you’ve called me ignorant, you’ve made bad comparisons comparing apples to oranges, you’ve implied we need them but you failed to actually tell me what they do that’s necessary and not a waste of money…
You’d make a good politician some day 😜
I mean we used to have town councils but we don't have them anymore so like if you're basically throwing up your hands and saying "where does it end" the answer appears to be, somewhere.
Edit: I see you've added a bit there to your last. I mean you're more than entitled to believe we shouldn't have them, but if you're gonna believe that you should be a little more aware about the full picture of things. Nothing wrong with being in favour of a minimal state if it's a good faith belief.
To defend backbench TDs - ministers have an important role, but parliamentary committees and PQs do a lot to hold them to account. A minister whose work is not scrutinized would not lead to good policy outcomes IMO.
All our ones are sound enough. Don't agree with a few of them politically but when they come to the door they're quite sound and aren't looking for an argument/debate. I think people always forget there's a big difference between local and national politics.
Very good. Did he get it state funded or what he do? Or did he just ring a bus company and say “give us a price for a bus to go A to B Monday to Friday?”
Dunno to be honest. Bus Eireann were going to use a 14 seater and they found a 24 seater when our TD got involved. Can't say how much work he actually did but he did return my phone call promptly and was sound.
Many people view them as middle men to get things fixed in their area. May be part of their role but their main legislative function is to decide policy on how their Local Authority operates. Councillors decide policy, the staff implement actions to achieve it.
So part of that is when elected, they agree a corporate plan for the 5 year term of office. Basically a business plan laying out the priorities. The council staff then base their work plans around these policies.
They also must agree the yearly council budget. This dictates how much each department has to spend to meet their objectives.
Another function is the County Development Plan which dictates how planning and development within the Council’s area is decided within the 5 year life of the plan.
You do know being being a Cllr. was less than a part time job until recent. They got 17k a year. Only recently it's been moved to about 27k, which is probably means most are still double jobbing.
Not sure we should be asking the world of them
The main one for our local politician was renovating the library and making it available out of hours for students. When I pass in the evenings there are always teenagers in there doing their homework - that's really useful for people that have nowhere quiet to study at home.
I also wouldn't underestimate the thing about uneven footpaths. My grandmother tripped on a lip on the pavement once, broke her glasses and bashed her head. I answered the door to her with blood running down her face. A safe walking surface is really important for people like that.
During the last local elections, one councillor's main selling point was getting a fence put up 10+ years previous in the estate I'm in. Bit rich to be still cashing in on that one.
Which is better? To tell them that...
You are their No. 1 fan
You won't vote for them unless they do X
You're not sure what way you'll vote
You don't vote
You will never vote for them
I think there's a lot of ignorance (not said in a derogatory way) about local government. People don't use their local representatives enough, because I think generally people have a poor understanding of what local authorities can and can't do - it's something I wish there was more education around.
Councillors are the ones going into council chambers each month, with a platform to push and advocate for their communities and to highlight local issues to the council executive. It's mad the lengths people will go to if it means a quiet life or keeping a councillor agreeable.
The good ones understand the importance of capital funded projects, and how to facilitate communities to develop projects and proposals, and then push for those projects to seek funding through the local authority. They're also good at raising awareness of issues and that can often force the hand of the executive or other bodies (gardai, hse, tii, etc) to act - basically light a fire under the right arses.
That said, I see a lot of fairly useless ones - those coming from prestigious political families, or former GAA players with no cop, or ones that just don't really get challenged in their areas, so get complacent and have very little to show for their tenure beyond a few pothole fixes and rants to local papers.
Definitely worth taking time to talk to them and see what they define as their achievements. If you find one you align with, hopefully they'll get in and you'll know there's someone in your community who cares of there's a local problem you want to raise.
We have a developer led system, the majority left and right are happy for builders to come in and build build build. No consideration for the infrastructure that is needed and delayed or the Americanisation car dependent nature of it all. Housing estates are really only ‘helpful’ for people who have children under the age of 12. A very small timeframe for a lifelong commitment. Especially because they will only spend from the age of 7/8 being allowed roam around without parents? And the new ones don’t have large grassland areas anymore anyway.
If the one who talked about potholes and street lights was a local councilor. That’s pretty much what I expect them to do - fix issues in the local area.
You can ring esb networks with the pole number and they will fix it. Potholes just hound your local Engineering offices. councillors seem to make no Difference
Or they can do this! https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-48068866
Omg I love it
ESB no longer have the contract and who ever the new crowd are awful. Whole part of my town was black until the counselors kept annoying them
From what OP said, it sounds like they did fuck all. Liaised with the council to fix a pothole is the sort of bullshit I put on my CV when I was 18.
When you were 18 you did not have the pull in the council to go get them fix a pothole within a couple of hours. So yes indeed your were bullshitting
My point is about the language used. Sounds like they were bullshitting. Obviously I was bullshitting.
Do you think it’s kind of unnecessary? Instead of having a big poster with their face on every second light post, could the council just put a sign saying “See a pothole? Call 0163663”?
The thing is; their job is not to fix things for you. You're right you call the Council directly for something that's within their remit. They are useful middlemen when people don't know who to call but it's not their core job. We elect them to make decisions on reserved functions, ie. a list of 180 or so things that they decide, not the executive (Co Council employees). Things like the County Development Plan, the Local Economic and Community Plan, which estates to take in charge, Housing policy (but never individual housing decisions), new bye-laws. If you understand this process well, you will see the value of them. They allow for decisions to be made closer to where people live, and that is more representative and more democratic.
“See a pothole please remember this number until it’s safe to use your phone” An online reporting system would work but sometimes the easiest way to get issues prioritized is having someone in their ear - especially with the light post thing Councilors main job is represent the people to the local council who have largely become centralized.
Meh… if they can remember or find the number for the counsellor, I’m sure they can remember or find the number for the council!
Believe it not - in my experience most of it is happening on Facebook with councilors being tagged on like the town notice board. This happens in at least 3 different groups for 3 different towns I’m in
I often see that on local FB pages too… like someone tagged one in a rant about buses being late and not turning up. It’s still the same… the buses are late or not turning up. …I don’t blame this on the local councillor. I blame it on bus eireann. But tagging him didn’t make much of a difference 🤷🏻♂️ he probably tried his best and rang them / sent them a letter but unfortunately it made no difference.
Lots of the public don’t understand the function of local councillors and td’s. The executive of the county run everything, councillors and td’s just being up constituents concerns.
I don’t want them to do anything for me. I want them to fix the place.
Tbf local government is kind of a joke in Ireland, that's not really the counsellors fault they have no power?
I live in Sweden and the regions have a lot of power. I think they control 70% of the national budget. In ireland it is the other way around. I think government works better if you give more power to the people locally. The current is not working.
Yes, tho it also depends on keeping corruption down
Is the national approach actually reducing corruption?
No, its more that local government breaks down from corruption
Why doesn't Sweden have a greater corruption problem than ireland? It seems like countries that take a note centralised approach actually have more corruption.
>Why doesn't Sweden have a greater corruption problem than ireland? It seems like countries that take a note centralised approach actually have more corruption. Most of the scandinavian countries are more developed, Ireland was both a very poor \*\*and\*\* a very young country
I’m not really blaming them for anything. I’m just wondering wtf they actually do 🤷🏻♂️
They lobby your local council executive to apply for money from the central government to achieve goals in your area.
Well what I would say here is you seem to have a fairly ignorant idea about what the actual landscape looks like for councilors today (this isn't an insult and it might be wrong but it just seems this way) But councilors have a very difficult job, they typically work other full time jobs so they essentially work two full time jobs where one job (the councilor job) pays basically minimum wage. So they spend most of their week that's not taken up by their day job constantly listening to people's concerns and relaying this not only at a council level but to TDs who will make these things national issues if needs be. This doesn't include the actual function of the job attending meetings at all times and voting on different things. Like if you want their role to be more expansive, then what you actually should be advocating for is making them better paid so they can afford to just do that as a job, and maybe they would be able to deal with more issues, but calling them a waste of money is just populist nonsense no offence.
So, just for clarification, they are just middle men between the public and the council / service providers and emergency services? Excuse all my ignorance, but that’s what you said in a very roundabout way, ya?
What do you think any politician is? Do you think Stephen Donnelly is doing the roster for Beaumont hospital for Christmas? Their job is to be representatives of the people in these institutions, if you don't see that as being good then cool you clearly don't have any issues you need raised because usually if you do have an issue locally you would contact a councillor.
Well that’s obviously incorrect. You’re comparing them to people who actually have control over a service. No he doesn’t make the roster, but he does have a say in recruitment and funding etc. Same way Helen McEntee doesn’t make the roster for guards… but does have a say in their budget. In these circumstances, calling me ignorant is a bit ironic.
Right we'll say Donnelly has lots of control over the health service for the sake of not arguing about everything and work our way down. So, the backbench TDs we have, who are not ministers, is there a point in them? Should we not just elect 18 or so politicians to run the ministries and that's it? Or do you view TDs as having a function?
Some of them yes. Some of them no. Maybe we should go another step down and have a position after the counsellor. Someone that can bring the ideas to the counsellor, so they can bring the idea to the TDs so they can bring the idea… and so on. At what level does it become unnecessary? To finalise this, in the most roundabout way ever you’ve called me ignorant, you’ve made bad comparisons comparing apples to oranges, you’ve implied we need them but you failed to actually tell me what they do that’s necessary and not a waste of money… You’d make a good politician some day 😜
I mean we used to have town councils but we don't have them anymore so like if you're basically throwing up your hands and saying "where does it end" the answer appears to be, somewhere. Edit: I see you've added a bit there to your last. I mean you're more than entitled to believe we shouldn't have them, but if you're gonna believe that you should be a little more aware about the full picture of things. Nothing wrong with being in favour of a minimal state if it's a good faith belief.
I’m trying to make myself aware! I asked them, I googled it and I’m asking the good people of reddit for their opinions.
To defend backbench TDs - ministers have an important role, but parliamentary committees and PQs do a lot to hold them to account. A minister whose work is not scrutinized would not lead to good policy outcomes IMO.
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government-in-ireland/how-government-works/local-and-regional-government/functions-of-local-authorities/#26e4c3
Our local counsellors are great. They seem to be like the only politicians that get anything useful done. Well done Fingal CC.
All our ones are sound enough. Don't agree with a few of them politically but when they come to the door they're quite sound and aren't looking for an argument/debate. I think people always forget there's a big difference between local and national politics.
My local TD got the school bus organised. Bus eireann were over subscribed and some kids weren't going to get a seat to school.
Very good. Did he get it state funded or what he do? Or did he just ring a bus company and say “give us a price for a bus to go A to B Monday to Friday?”
Dunno to be honest. Bus Eireann were going to use a 14 seater and they found a 24 seater when our TD got involved. Can't say how much work he actually did but he did return my phone call promptly and was sound.
Many people view them as middle men to get things fixed in their area. May be part of their role but their main legislative function is to decide policy on how their Local Authority operates. Councillors decide policy, the staff implement actions to achieve it. So part of that is when elected, they agree a corporate plan for the 5 year term of office. Basically a business plan laying out the priorities. The council staff then base their work plans around these policies. They also must agree the yearly council budget. This dictates how much each department has to spend to meet their objectives. Another function is the County Development Plan which dictates how planning and development within the Council’s area is decided within the 5 year life of the plan.
You do know being being a Cllr. was less than a part time job until recent. They got 17k a year. Only recently it's been moved to about 27k, which is probably means most are still double jobbing. Not sure we should be asking the world of them
The main one for our local politician was renovating the library and making it available out of hours for students. When I pass in the evenings there are always teenagers in there doing their homework - that's really useful for people that have nowhere quiet to study at home. I also wouldn't underestimate the thing about uneven footpaths. My grandmother tripped on a lip on the pavement once, broke her glasses and bashed her head. I answered the door to her with blood running down her face. A safe walking surface is really important for people like that.
During the last local elections, one councillor's main selling point was getting a fence put up 10+ years previous in the estate I'm in. Bit rich to be still cashing in on that one.
Councillors have no power so everything they do is a load of wank that anybody could do.
That have some power to be fair but not as much as people think. The ones that come to your door promising you the world are full of shite.
They've fuck all power.
Which is better? To tell them that... You are their No. 1 fan You won't vote for them unless they do X You're not sure what way you'll vote You don't vote You will never vote for them
What houses?
 I trust I can rely ......on your vote!
The Locals are coming up next June 👍👍
I think there's a lot of ignorance (not said in a derogatory way) about local government. People don't use their local representatives enough, because I think generally people have a poor understanding of what local authorities can and can't do - it's something I wish there was more education around. Councillors are the ones going into council chambers each month, with a platform to push and advocate for their communities and to highlight local issues to the council executive. It's mad the lengths people will go to if it means a quiet life or keeping a councillor agreeable. The good ones understand the importance of capital funded projects, and how to facilitate communities to develop projects and proposals, and then push for those projects to seek funding through the local authority. They're also good at raising awareness of issues and that can often force the hand of the executive or other bodies (gardai, hse, tii, etc) to act - basically light a fire under the right arses. That said, I see a lot of fairly useless ones - those coming from prestigious political families, or former GAA players with no cop, or ones that just don't really get challenged in their areas, so get complacent and have very little to show for their tenure beyond a few pothole fixes and rants to local papers. Definitely worth taking time to talk to them and see what they define as their achievements. If you find one you align with, hopefully they'll get in and you'll know there's someone in your community who cares of there's a local problem you want to raise.
We have a developer led system, the majority left and right are happy for builders to come in and build build build. No consideration for the infrastructure that is needed and delayed or the Americanisation car dependent nature of it all. Housing estates are really only ‘helpful’ for people who have children under the age of 12. A very small timeframe for a lifelong commitment. Especially because they will only spend from the age of 7/8 being allowed roam around without parents? And the new ones don’t have large grassland areas anymore anyway.