Councillors in Clonmel Borough District have been summoned to a special meeting by the Mayor Pat English on April 28th. The meeting is to be held at 2.30pm.
The Mayor is calling on the councillors to request that the Government deliver on a commitment in the Programme for Government to establish a Task Force on Local Democracy. Many councillors across the country are seeking the restoration of town councils as they feel the change to Municipal District Councils in 2014 has left town budgets short of funding to deliver services.
The new Government committed to establish a task force to examine the functioning of local Democracy. Although no timelines were mentioned in the Programme for Government the Task Force was to “bring forward proposals which the Government will consider with a particular focus on: The principle of subsidiarity, Increasing the range of reserved functions and consideration of devolving more powers to local authorities for local services, granting councillors greater input and control over the development and implementation of the local authority budget, rebalancing power between elected councillors and executive officers, to ensure that elected officials have a right to be consulted on a greater range of decisions and the right to know of all other decisions in a timely manner, increasing the accountability of the Chief Executive and Directors of Services to councillors for executive decisions, enhancing fiscal autonomy, the timely reporting of the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) and engagement with public representatives, the proportion of local authority members to population, strengthening the framework and powers of Municipal Districts and Area Committees, support frameworks for Councillors to carry out their duties drawing from the Moorhead report and on a regional, phased basis, establish town councils in large towns to provide a focal-point for raising concerns of towns and coordinating town-focused activities” are all listed for the examination by the yet to be established Taskforce.
