Local Government in Ireland
| Date | 01 March 1968 |
| Author | Desmond Roche |
| DOI | 10.1177/002085236803400110 |
| Published date | 01 March 1968 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Local
Government
in
Ireland
by
Desmond
ROCHE,
Principal,
School
of
Public
Administration
UDC
352.071
(417)
Local
government
in
Ireland
is
carried
on
by
a
system
of
locally
elected
councils
with
powers
of
local
taxation.
The
principal
ad-
ministrative
units
are
the
counties
and
cities,
but
there
are
councils
also
in
the
boroughs
and
in
many
of
the
smaller
towns;
and
(in
Northern
Ireland)
in
sub-divisions
of
counties,
called
rural
districts.
The
councils
are
creatures
of
Parliament :
their
powers
and
duties
are
close-
ly
defined
by
legislation,
and
they
have
no
authority
to
raise
money
and
provide
services
other
than
that
conferred
by
statute.
Council
business
is
done,
in
the
Republic
of
Ireland,
by
a
version
of
the
council-manager
plan
which
constitutes
one
of
the
major
innovations
in
Irish
administration.
In
Northern
Ireland
the
council-committee
system
still
operates
on
the
English
model.
These
councils
and
their
executive
organs
constitute
both
political
and
administrative
sub-systems.
There
is
a
fairly
large
political
element
in
local
government,
and
councillors
for
the
most
part
offer
themselves
for
election
as
representatives
of
political
parties
and
inter-
ests.
Local
authorities
also
form
part
of
the
general
administrative
system :
they
conduct
a
very
large
amount
of
what
has
come
to
be
recognised
as
essentially
State
business :
pub-
lic
health
services,
housing,
roads
and
so
on.
But
the
local
government
sub-system
neverthe-
less
stands
somewhat
apart
from
the
State
ma-
chinery
proper,
and
the
two
have
never
be-
come
fused
after
the
European
fashion.
Local
government
personnel
form
a
service
quite
distinct,
legally
and
otherwise,
from
the
State
civil
service;
and
local
chief
executives,
whe-
ther
mayor
or
manager,
do
not
function
as
agents
of
the
State
for
any
purposes.
The
formal
separateness
of
the
local
govern-
ment
system
cannot
be
construed
as
indepen-
dence.
The
State,
through
various
Ministries,
the
principal
of
which
are
the
Departments
of
Local
Government
and
Health,
exercises
wide
control,
supervision
and
influence
over
the
de-
cisions
and
acts
of
local
authorities.
A
Brief
Retrospect
Local
government
in
Ireland
may
be
view-
ed,
in
historical
perspective,
as
a
concession
by
the
British
Imperial
Parliament
in
1898
to
Irish
home
rule
aspirations.
But
generali-
sations
about
so
various
a
subject
as
local
government
are
both
difficult
and
dangerous.
Local
authorities
existed
and
flourished
in
Ireland
before
1898.
Indeed,
before
the
&dquo;
conquest &dquo;
of
Ireland
by
Britain
began
in
1172,
all
government
in
Ireland
was
local,
and
many
of
the
weaknesses
of
the
resistance
to
annexation
are
attributable
to
the
absence
in
Ireland
of
any
effective
central
authority.
Then,
as
British
power
and
influence
began
to
radiate
out
from
Dublin,
municipalities
and
county
administrations
on
the
English
model
were
constituted,
and
slowly
(the
process
took
nearly
five
centuries)
ousted
the
older
Irish
forms
of
government.
When
local
govern-
ment
in
something
like
modern
form
began
to
emerge
in
Britain
in
the
19th
century,
the
same
process
was
set
in
train
in
Ireland,
then
bound
to
Britain
by
the
legislative
union
of
1800.
It
is
hardly
surprising,
therefore,
that
the
Irish
system
of
local
government
is,
basically,
the
British
model
with
Irish
adaptations.
The
legislative
foundations
for
the
structure
were
laid
by
the
British
Parliament
in
the
19th
cen-
tury :
they
comprise
the
Poor
Relief
(Ireland)
Act
1838,
which
introduced
a
modern
type
of
representative
local
authority
(the
board
of
guardians)
for
the
relief
of
poverty
and
illness;
the
Municipal
Corporations
(Ireland)
Act,
1840,
which
brought
the
representative
princi-
ple
into
borough
and
city
government,
and
swept
away
the
majority
of
the
old
corpora-
tions ;
the
Public
Health
(Ireland)
Act,
1878,
which
distributed
sanitary
and
health
functions
among
a
network
of
elective
urban
and
rural
district
councils;
and
the
Local
Government
(Ireland)
Act,
1898,
which
created
represen-
tative
county
authorities
and
rationalised
the
whole
structure.
It
became
under
the
Act
a
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