Opinion

Newton Emerson: Local government democratic deficit puts officials ahead of elected councillors

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Irish News and is a regular commentator on current affairs on radio and television.

The local government democratic deficit places council officials over elected representatives
The local government democratic deficit places council officials over elected representatives The local government democratic deficit places council officials over elected representatives

IN the Republic's local elections tomorrow, the people of Cork, Limerick and Waterford will have an extra question on their ballots - do they want directly-elected executive mayors?

The question has largely arisen because of Project Ireland 2040, the Irish government's ambitious plan for its regional cities.

Elected mayors would drive those plans forward, or more likely scale them down to a more realistic level.

The point is that decisions would have accountable strategic leadership.

Introducing directly-elected executive mayors has become the standard answer to addressing the democratic deficit in local government, due to reforms introduced 20 years ago in England and Wales.

The first example, perhaps unfortunately, was Boris Johnson in London. Fifteen other cities have since followed.

The idea has never been considered applicable to Northern Ireland because our councils are so small compared to the huge authorities in Britain.

However, tomorrow's plebiscites in the Republic could change that perspective. Cork is one-third the size of Belfast, Limerick has a comparable population to most Northern Ireland supercouncils and Waterford is smaller than Ballymena.

If nothing else, elected mayors in the Republic might make us question our own democratic deficit.

We all know our current mayors are mere symbolic wearers of chains but few of us seem to realise or care that every councillor we elect is just a backbencher in parliamentary terms and no political party is 'in office' in any meaningful sense.

Councils are entirely run by their officials - local government has its own civil service, separate to the Northern Ireland Civil Service at Stormont.

At the top of each council sits a chief executive with directors in charge of every department. They are the first ministers and ministers of the system, devising strategy and policy.

Councillors get to scrutinise this on committees but that makes them more of an opposition than a government.

Councillors also get their own monthly meeting where they tend to grandstand over sectarian nonsense, which may well be a function of having little else to do.

We managed to get the whole way through the decade-long debate on forming the supercouncils without apparently noticing or minding that extra powers were being transferred from elected Stormont ministers to unelected council officials.

Last year, councillors from all the main parties formed an umbrella group to lobby for a further transfer of powers from Stormont to local government, although that effectively means these parties are lobbying to disempower themselves.

Since Stormont collapsed, we have become painfully aware of the democratic deficit of indirect rule, with civil servants left entirely in charge.

Yet still we are not struck by local government having essentially the same arrangement as a permanent state of affairs.

In the council elections here three weeks ago, no party or candidate to my knowledge even raised the issue of their prospective powerlessness, let alone campaigned to change it.

Accountability may be destined to become an issue in Northern Ireland, regardless of developments in the Republic, thanks to the Belfast and Derry city deals, which will involve multiple councils delivering ambitious developments plans through new powers and funding.

The Belfast city deal region will cover almost half the land area of Northern Ireland and 60 per cent of the population.

Precedent in England is for city deal regions to begin by hiring a chief executive then move to an executive mayor, either by promoting the mayor from the largest member authority or by creating a new overarching office. Six regions have done this so far.

However, precedent here strongly suggests we will get stuck at appointing a new layer of unelected bureaucracy, under the command of someone who will in effect be 'Manager East of the Bann'.

Reluctance to promote executive democracy in local government has several causes in Northern Ireland.

Our councils remain relatively unimportant, accounting for only 4 per cent of total public spending compared to over a quarter in Britain.

Standards of elected representation are variable, to put it mildly, although again it must be asked if this is because councillors have so little to do.

The greatest lurking concern is the potential divisiveness of creating powerful local leaders. It is tragically easy to imagine requiring a mayor and a deputy mayor in formal power-sharing arrangements.

But embarking on grand restructuring visions and new types of elections is hardly necessary.

Placing those we already elect above their officials rather than under them should be sufficient - or at worst, enough to know if this is an idea worth taking further.

newton@irishnews.com