Community Workers Co-Operative |
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New Roles
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Enhancing local democracy to eliminate poverty |
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Conference Summary, march 1998 |
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Background
& Context
Strategic Policy Committees - Summary Reform Proposals |
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The past year has seen a lot
of discussion on the changing nature of local government.
"Better
Local Government - A Programme for Change" the
White Paper on local government reform, which was
produced in December 1996, has provided the stimulus for
much of this. Many of the changes announced and currently
being implemented have produced a range of reactions,
both positive and negative. The reactions have come from
elected councillors, from local authority managers, from
community bases organisations, from trade unions.
Ironically, or maybe not so, changes which have been
welcomed by some have been roundly criticised by others.
There does though appear to be a common strand of
opinion. Most of those commenting on local government
reform share a vision of more effective, efficient and
responsive local government. The path to achieving this
vision and the issues to be addressed on the way may
however differ. To deepen our own understanding of this, the CWC Local Government Sub Group held conference last November drawing together community activists, local councillors, representative of statutory bodies, partnership companies and others. The purpose of this document is to present, in summary form, some of the ideas and issues discussed at the conference. A core element of the conference discussions was an agreement around the need for local government to become more responsive to the needs, concerns and involvement of community organisations working to eliminate social exclusion. This, the conference was told by Minister Noel Dempsey and others, will require local authorities to more fully appreciate and embrace the concept of participatory democracy and its contribution alongside representative democracy to the further evolution of democratic expression in Ireland. The challenges in achieving this should not be underestimated. Undoubtedly, participatory democracy and the development and implementation of strategies to support it, for some, represents a considerable threat to the traditional way of doing things. The working culture of both the executive and representative sides of many local authorities will need to adjust and adapt to new forms of democratic expression. In particular, it will involve local authorities opening themselves up to constructive input and possibly criticism from community organisations, without resorting to "punishing" those to openly disagree with them. For community organisation too, the evolving nature of local governance will present challenges. Challenges to engage more fully engage with local government structures, challenges to develop broad local strategies to eliminate poverty and to insert these strategies on the agendas of political parties and local authority executives. At the end of the day, the biggest challenge of all is for local democracy to adapt itself to the challenges of eliminating social exclusion, not least the exclusion, for whatever reason, of many from local democratic process. The responsibility and the need to address this should not be taken lightly. |
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Conference Speakers: Charting the Changes Noel Dempsey T.D., Minister for the Environment and Local Government. Frank Ryan, IPA, Local Government Unit. Stasia Crickley, CWC & ADM Board. Responding To The Changes Chris Flood T.D., Minister of State, Dept Of Tourism, Sport & Recreation. Siobhan Lynam, ADM Ltd Workshops. Tackling Poverty And Inequality Hugh Frazer, Combat Poverty Agency. Brid O`Brien, Pavee Point, Workshop Report. Kathleen fahy, CWC. Chris McInerney, CWC. |
Contacts & Information |
|
Kildare County Council | N. Bradley,
County Manager, |
Area Development Management Ltd. | Holbrook
House, Holles Street, Dublin 2 |
Institute of Public Administration | Local
Authority Unit, |
Community Workers Co-operative | Chris
McInerney, |
Combat Poverty Agency | Helen
Johnston, Bridgewater Centre, |
Department of the Environment | John Cullen,
Local Government Division, |
National Anti-Poverty Strategy Unit | Bernadette
Lacey, |
Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation | Kildare
Street, Dublin 2 |