The recent publication of the Statement of Strategy 2011-2014 for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government does, once again, highlight the reform challenges that will have to be confronted by those in local government and local development in the coming years.
Along with other Departments such statement sets out to inform the direction of the public service generally over successive years and provides, to a limited extent, the benchmark against which the performance of an individual department can be assessed. Their importance is that they provide the reader with an overview of how the relevant department perceives its immediate environment and how it expects to address the many known and unknown challenges which will arise in the course of the implementation of its strategic mandate.
Clearly all Government Departments are having to confront the major shift in the economic environment now confronting the State. This is having particular resonance for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government given that it is now seen as playing a much greater role in ensuring that the economic platform on which a sustainable economy can be built is now more clearly placed within it s policy fields. This is, in turn, underpinned by the renewed role the Department is having to play in over-seeing a realignment of local government and local development and in the general reform of local government, one of the critical pillars on which the overall reform of public administration in the State is based.
The Department’s overall goals now include:
• To contribute to national recovery through the timely delivery of it’s policies and
programmes especially in support of job creation;
• contribute to public service reform;
• ensure good quality housing in sustainable communities;
• protect and improve water resources and the quality of drinking water;
• achieve a high quality environment with effective environmental protection;
• support and enable democratic and responsive local government;
• promote and support the development of communities and the community and
voluntary sector;
• ensure that planning and building in our regions and communities contributes to sustainable and balanced development and
• monitor, analyse and predict Ireland’s weather and climate.
A key aspect of the operational environment is clearly the obligation to meet Ireland’s commitments in the IMF/ECB/EC support package. In addition to that is the obligation to implement the reforms set out in the Programme for Government and to oversee internal renewal under the Public Service Reform Plan. The Department will, therefore, come under considerable pressure to meet its obligations and in doing so to ensure that its partner agencies in local government and local development do likewise. A significant challenge even in the best of times there is no doubt that with the sort of financial pressures the Department will be under, much of what it is expected to deliver will require an unparalleled level of cooperation between and within the various divisions of the Department and the local government and local development sectors.
The Department’s high level objectives include:
• Enabling all households access good quality housing appropriate to household circumstances and in their particular community of choice.
• Protecting and improving water resources and water dependent ecosystems; to provide water services infrastructure to support sustainable growth and environmental protection, to introduce new governance and pricing arrangements for the delivery and management of water services; and to ensure the appropriate regulation of the water sector.
• Promoting the protection of the environment and human health, contributing to the development of a green economy and the global effort against climate change, both directly and through ensuring the continued integration of environmental and wider sustainable development considerations into economic and sectoral policies.
• Shaping, developing and supporting local government to represent and serve communities effectively and efficiently.
• In the Franchise area, to develop policy, legislation and systems as key elements of electoral reform.
• Facilitating integrated development at local level and fostering vibrant, sustainable and inclusive communities; to support the Community and Voluntary Sector in its contribution to an active, democratic and pluralist society.
• Providing an enhanced policy and legislative framework to promote sustainable economic growth and balanced regional development, in compliance with a strong planning code.
• Provision of effective monitoring, analysis and prediction of Ireland’s weather and climate, and provision of a range of high quality meteorological services to customers.
These high level objectives are underpinned by general policy outcomes, a welcome development which will require the introduction of specific actions and targeted performance measures if the Strategy is to complement the thinking of the Public Service Reform Plan.
The thinking certainly suggests that the Department will seek to deliver on its many obligations some of which might, at times, appear to conflict. Nonetheless it will be interesting to track the Department’s progress in the coming three years to see the extent to which its goals can be achieved, particularly in a time of rapid change and unstable economic conditions. As others one time might have suggested…a lot done…but more to do!
