Double standards in local government
| |
Governments have conceded the need for a regional and localised
approach to economic development. What is needed now is a programme
of democratisation
|
Voters in the 26 Counties go to the polls this coming June to elect
members to councils across the state as well as 15 MEPs. The
elections to the councils were delayed from 1998 because yet again
local government was to be reformed.
The failures and inadequacies of local government are plain for all
to see in the 26 Counties. The Flood inquiry into abuses of planning
regulations is only the first step towards uncovering the level of
corruption and fraud in local government.
However the annual statement from Shannon Development last week
highlighted other failures in the 26-County's local government
structures. Shannon Development reported that they had created 3,200
jobs in 1998. They had spent more than £11 million on infrastructure
in the region, refurbishing and upgrading industrial estates and
enterprise centres as well as building new industrial units. The
Development company is also in the process of buying new land in
Ennis, Tralee and Limerick City.
Activities like this should be the remit of local government. Shannon
Development has no electoral representation and does not have to
answer to the local community it represents because it is totally
under the control of central government.
In Dublin the Temple Bar area is again run by an unelected state
appointed company. The same is the case in Dublin's Docklands as the
areas economic and structural development is controlled by the
Docklands Development Authority.
The existence of regional development companies and enterprise zones
shows that successive governments have conceded the need for a
regional and localised approach to economic development. What is
needed now is a programme of democratisation for these institutions.
Agencies and bodies like Shannon Development, Enterprise Ireland, the
IDA and others have budgets running into hundreds of millions of
punts. They must come under the remit of a democratic system of local
government. That would be real reform of local government.
Who is to blame?
| |
The crisis at Tallaght Hospital and the reduction in hospital services
is not a situation that happened overnight
|
What do Brian Cowen, Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin have in
common?. They have all held the post of Minister of Health in
successive Dublin Governments over the past five years.
During this time the health sector in Ireland has weathered crisis
after crisis, culminating this week in the resignation of Tallaght
Hospital's chief executive David McCutcheon.
During their tenure the number of hospital beds has decreased by 20%
and in Dublin three hospitals have closed with the one hospital that
replaced them unable to deliver the services it was designed for.
Tallaght Hospital has a budget overrun of nearly £18 million. In the
wake of it's chief executive's resignation the recriminations from
Fine Gael and other political parties were flying. However the crisis
Tallaght Hospital and the reduction in hospital services is not a
situation that happened overnight.
It is the direct consequence of ongoing neglect by central
government. All the parties in government over the past five years
must share the blame and now they and especially Cowen must act to
deliver a quality health service to all.
Shut Sellafield now
The announcement that the German government is set to end the
reprocessing of its spent nuclear fuel should lead to the end of
Sellafield's THORP facility. Sellafield will lose £1 billion in
business if the German Government implements proposals to end the use
of nuclear energy. This would involve the shutting down of 19
reactors in Germany.
The reprocessing facility at Sellafield depends on importing spent
nuclear fuel for reprocessing to justify the huge capital costs
invloved in building and maintaining the facility.
In September 1998 it was revealed that the independent consultants
report justifying the £2.8 billion Thorp plant never actually
existed. The £2.8 billion needed to build the plant came from an EU
low cost loan signed by then Dublin Government Finance Minister
Albert Reynolds during the 1990 Presidency.
It is strange that when the EU Commission is complaining about state
aid to business it is remarkably silent about the aid given to
nuclear facilities. The economic viabillity of THORP has never been
independently validated. It is not economicially viable and it was
any other loss making business it would be closed.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)