Mayo councillors cannot be held to account for decisions they are not allowed to make

A EUROPEAN study confirms what Mayo councillors say at every meeting.

Ireland's local authorities have plenty of responsibility but little power.

The European Local Government Report 2025, published by KDZ, the Centre for Public Administration Research, found that local government spending in Ireland was just 2.3 per cent of GDP in 2024.

Only Malta and Cyprus were lower.

Local government's share of public revenue was 7 per cent, again third lowest in the EU.

Size matters too. Ireland's 31 local authorities each represent an average of 161,907 people. That is the most in the EU, and more than 100,000 ahead of second-placed Denmark, which has 98 authorities serving about 59,600 each.

The report's authors describe a highly centralised system where councils depend on transfers and have little room to adapt spending to local needs.

The government says it is listening. The Local Democracy Taskforce made 23 recommendations.

They include municipal councils with enhanced budgetary and decision-making powers, a bigger council role in approving applications for central funding, and new revenue options such as tourist taxes.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne says the municipal councils will be in place for the 2029 local elections.

Credit where it is due. Browne says earlier reports on local democracy gathered dust, and this one comes with an implementation plan.

But legislation still has to pass, and it is hardly a priority for a minister with housing in his remit. The election is under three years away, and specifics are scarce.

Mayo shows the problem today. At the latest Westport-Belmullet Municipal District meeting, councillors discussed the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS).

Mayo received €1,154,780 this year, plus €50,000 for island roads, out of a national pot of €17.55 million. Members heard the funding would need to be quadrupled to clear the backlog.

Councillors were reminded that LIS is a roads department function, and the local authority prioritises the roads. So Dublin sets the pot, the executive picks the roads, and councillors fill in forms and field the calls when a minister announces new money.

Fianna Fáil's Councillor Paul McNamara has had enough. He told the meeting that the next time he is asked about a LIS road, he will tell constituents early that it won't be done.

Independent Councillor Johnny O'Malley said he would need another 50 years on the council to see all the roads on his list completed.

I asked Minister Browne a month ago about implementing the Taskforce report. He said it would make local authority managers and directors of services more accountable.

Accountability matters, and Browne himself has said executives became unaccountable to councillors. But nobody can be held to account for decisions they are not allowed to make. Give managers and councillors real money and real agency first.

The same meeting showed what a starved system looks like. Fine Gael's Councillor Peter Flynn described the build-up of dirt and grime on one Westport street over the hot summer.

"It was clear no street sweeping was done; we collected 12 bags of rubbish that day and they told me it was the same a week earlier," he said.

The executive admitted that leave had hampered staff numbers. Just seven outdoor workers cover one of the largest municipal districts in the country. Tidy Towns groups, rural social schemes and volunteers keep Mayo's towns inviting.

The district generates substantial commercial rates for Mayo County Council, yet it owns just two lawnmowers. Councillor Brendan Mulroy pointed out that a Westport teenager with a summer job cutting lawns in the early 2000s had ten mowers.

This is a district that is home to the Corrib gas terminal, AbbVie, Portwest and some of the county's biggest hotels.

Critics call the public sector bloated. Not our local authorities; they are stretched dangerously thin.

Transparency matters too. Albert Dolan's StateSpend.ie and the newly launched Public Purse trace public money line by line, and both are welcome. But they show only where the money went. They cannot show who decided. At local level, the answer is usually Dublin, which sets the money and the rules.

So watch what happens to the 2029 municipal councils. Will they get budgets they control, revenue they can raise, and a real say on schemes like LIS? Or will they be just another tier of meetings for angry councillors to sit through?

Until Dublin lets go and properly decentralises to the municipal level, Mayo's councillors will keep taking calls for decisions made elsewhere.