Final Paper Local Government and Spatial Planning in Ireland

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government launched his reform proposals to varying and generally under whelming degrees of debate last October and a year later the Cabinet has given approval to the central aspects of the reforms … Continue reading →

Local Government reform is not just a feature of public service reform in Ireland. All across the OECD governments are having to confront the realities of austerity, increased globalisation, the rise of the competitive city-region and shifts in understanding the … Continue reading →

One of the on-going themes in public service reforms since the 1980’s has been that of trying to demonstrate service efficiency and effectiveness in services which in many instances do not lend themselves to normal quantification appraisal. It is clearly … Continue reading →

The introduction, under the Localism Act in England, of neighbourhood planning has possibly come at an ideal time from an Irish perspective. Traditionally, never an appropriate system worth considering in public service reform given the scale and centrality of Whitehall … Continue reading →

The on-going effort of the Government in the United Kingdom to move away from the traditional centralised public service model, particularly in England, has been featured in several previous articles. Cameron’s New Localism initiative is beginning to bring a new … Continue reading →

…the scope for absorbing cost pressures through reducing other lower-cost services is diminishing, because authorities have already reduced spending on these services. Local authorities and their partners recognise that to achieve their desired outcomes with fewer resources, they will have … Continue reading →

The Strategic Plan for Next Generation Shared Services issued by the UK Government should be of immediate interest to service delivery agencies across the Irish public sector. In it there is the acknowledgement of much learning since the introduction of … Continue reading →

A recent report to members of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom suggests that: Community budgets are a way of bringing different national and local funding strands together into a single local funding pot and, by doing so, … Continue reading →

Ireland assumed for the seventh time the presidency of the European Union. While a much diminished role with the advent of a permanent president of the European Council, the role still plays a significant role in helping set overall direction … Continue reading →