Cllr Damien Blake: Beyond Bertiegate

I’ll be blogging here weekly in the run-up to the next election. I’m a Fianna Fail member of Letterkenny Town Council, elected in June 2004, and I served as Mayor of Letterkenny from June ‘05 to June ‘06.

I’m a Fianna Fail councillor, but I’m not a Fianna Fail blogger. I’m a very proud member and supporter of this great party, but all views I’ll express here are my own; they don’t (necessarily) reflect Fianna Fail policy. If you disagree with something I post here, it’s me you disagree with.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, my first post:

Beyond Bertiegate

There has been much discussion, in all aspects of the media, of the recent “Bertiegate” saga. I don’t intend to go through the issues again, on either side of the issue*. Instead, I hope to move the discussion on a bit.

As a Public Representative, even at the polar opposite end of the spectrum of Political Influence to Bertie, the major issue I see coming from this relates to the current Standards for people in Public Office, with particular reference to Local Government.

The rules and regulations are very clear on what they define as constituting a “conflict”. This primarily revolves around “pecuniary” benefits on either a personal or family level. And that’s fair enough; there is clearly a conflict there. The regulations also cover the maximum level of donations which can be received by both an individual politician, and a party.

My concern is that the regulations are not prescriptive enough, and that the current political system—at local Government level—is built neither for efficiency, nor to reduce the potential for conflicts, and that recent moves in some sectors may only make the situation worse.

The importance of “Conflicts of Interest”

It could be argued that I have a massive “conflict of interest”. My primary motivation in standing for election, and the standard to which I hold the votes I take in Council, is to build a Letterkenny that is a great town to live in, to work in, to grow up in and to do business in. I’ve lived here all my life, and intend to spend the rest of my days here. Rather than looking back in twenty years time and saying “Somebody should have…”, I took the opportunity to get involved. If Letterkenny isn’t where it should be in twenty years, I’ll have nobody to blame but myself.

So that’s where my interest lies, and that’s why I make the votes that I do. I’m sure most Local Representatives would make a similar case for their own political careers.

The council on which I sit is made up from people from a variety of backgrounds. There are teachers, publicans, retailers, small business owners, and a student/web developer (me), as well as full-time politicians.

The problem with conflict of interest arises when people with competing interests are faced with decisions to be taken for the wider good. Each member of every council has different interests, each of which can be justified in different ways. A councillor who works, for example, as an architect^, has a business interest in ensuring that the Authority encourages building and development; this interest can often be justified in the best interests of the town.

However, a more insidious problem can arise where this same architect must consider an application for a rezoning, put forward by a former (or current) client. A clear conflict can arise in this situation; but a good councillor should be able to overcome this relationship, and judge the issue on its valid merits. In small town Ireland, it is very common for Councillors to know those people putting forward proposals for development.

In local government, as at all levels in politics, it is vital not just that everything is above board, but that everything is seen to be above board. For the reasons I’ve outlined above, that is not always possible.

A need for a new structure?

This problem goes to the core of issues at local government level.

There is massive duplication of effort and resources, with respect to Town Council areas where some services are provided by County Councils, some by Town Councils and some by both. Some Town Councils are much bigger than others, but Councillors are remunerated to the same levels.

To address this issue, and the issues I’ve outlined above, would require massive change in our system of local government. I don’t claim to have all the answers; the purpose of this post is to seek a debate on the issue. But I do feel that a move to reduce the number of councilors, while increasing accountability, responsibility and with that making the job a full time position, remunerated as such, would overcome many of these problems. There is also a case to be made for smaller functional areas; counties the size of Donegal, Cork, Galway and Kerry can see Councillors voting on issues that affect areas two hours away, in areas where they will never be held responsible.

I believe the system of local government, which has served Ireland for so long, is coming to the end of its life span. We need to start thinking of where we want to take local government, to ensure the best service for people, and that the best decisions for local areas are taken on a local level. Of course, we would want to do this while increasing value-for-money for tax payers.

What Bertiegate shows us is that Irish people, of course, want politicians to be beyond repute, but more than anything they want them to perform on the job. A move to make local politics a full-time job would be a step in this process. As Tip O’Neill said, “All Politics is Local”

* I’m not trying to gloss over the issue. Here’s my brief opinion: Bertie was wrong in what he did, but I don’t think it changes his ability to be Taoiseach. His record stands to itself.

^ I don’t know of any councillors who work as architects. I’m using this as an example for that very reason.