Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of four Irish examples of local state-society networks, namely strategic policy committees, local community development committees, local development companies and Comhairle na nÓg (youth councils). The strategic policy committees and local community development committees are formalized institutional, multisectoral committees that exist in each local authority. The former are self-reflective networks while the latter are delegated networks. The Comhairle na nÓg are largely ceremonial networks, while the more autonomous local development companies are consociational networks. The recent Irish experience of local state-society networks is of the increasing formalization of the structures that exist to bring local government and civil society together.
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Notes
- 1.
Twenty-six county councils, 3 city councils and 2 combined city and county councils.
- 2.
The 95 municipal districts exercise certain limited powers. Elected representatives are elected to the local authority and municipal district simultaneously.
- 3.
Comhairle na nÓg is the Gaelic/Irish translation of youth council. The youth councils are always referred to using the Gaelic term rather than the English translation.
- 4.
A large local authority may have more SPCs—the largest Irish local authority, Dublin City Council has seven SPCs: Arts, Culture, Leisure and Recreation; Climate Change, Environment and Energy; Economic Development and Enterprise; Finance; Housing; Traffic and Transport; Planning and Urban Form.
- 5.
Membership of the PPN in each local authority is open to groups representing (1) community and voluntary interests, (2) social inclusion interests and (3) environmental interests in the local authority area. Each PPN is organized into three electoral colleges or pillars representing these three sets of interests. PPN linkage groups bring together PPN members who have a particular interest on an issue or topic. When a committee or board requires a representative to sit on the requisite committee or board, a linkage group of all interested PPN members is created. This group then elects the representative from within the linkage group to sit on the board/committee. The linkage group acts as a means of ensuring two-way communication between the representative on the board/committee and the wider PPN group, and acts as a support structure for the representative.
- 6.
The legislation provides that while generally there will be one LCDC per local authority area, it recognized that in larger local authorities more than one may be required. Cork county as the largest county in Ireland has established three LCDCs.
- 7.
County and City Development Boards were established in 2000 and set up in each of the then 34 local authority areas as a more coherent means of creating links between local authorities and those involved in local and community development. These bodies produced ten-year strategies for their areas, known as city and county development strategies, but the boards were never well resourced and the city and county development strategies were documents which had little, if any, teeth. These were dissolved and replaced by the LCDCs on June 1, 2014.
- 8.
The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) is funded by the Irish Government and co-funded by the European Social Fund under the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014–2020.
- 9.
Pobal is a not-for-profit company set up by the Irish Government in 1992 that manages programs focused on social inclusion and equality on behalf of the Irish Government and the EU. It works as an intermediary for government by managing funding and providing resources for suitable programs.
- 10.
In LEADER 1 (1991–1994) there were 17 Local Action Groups (LAGs) in Ireland, and by the LEADER 2007–2013 program there were 36 integrated LAGs funded. In the 2014–2020 funding period there were 28 LAGs in place (see endnote 11 below for details).
- 11.
Prior to the establishment of the LCDCs in 2014, rural LDCs operated as the Local Action Groups (LAGs) for LEADER. LCDCs are now the LAGs for 25 out of a total of 28 LAGs for LEADER strategies in Ireland. In these 25 cases the local development companies (LDCs ) are now considered as implementing partners and engage with potential project promoters on the LAGs behalf. In the remaining 3 LAGs the LDC takes the role of the LAG and the implementing partner.
- 12.
See Pobal.ie for a full list of funding programs in the area of local development.
- 13.
Until 1999 local elected members were precluded from being involved on these boards. This was changed on foot of the recommendations of the Interdepartmental Taskforce on the Integration of Local Government and Local Development Systems (1999) Preparing the Ground: Guidelines for the Progress from Strategy Groups to County/City Development Boards.
- 14.
The original board structure for Area Based Partnerships was six public/state agency representatives, six community representatives and six representatives of the social partners: employers, farmer’s organizations and trade unions. This multisectoral partnership structure remains but is now less rigid in terms of the number of representatives from each sector, with the largest number of representatives on the boards drawn from the community and voluntary sector. Since 2014 local authorities are no longer required to nominate elected members to the boards of LDCs.
- 15.
On their work in combating poverty and social exclusion, see for example ILDN (2014).
- 16.
- 17.
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Russell, P. (2021). Local State-Society Relations in Ireland. In: Teles, F., Gendźwiłł, A., Stănuș, C., Heinelt, H. (eds) Close Ties in European Local Governance. Palgrave Studies in Sub-National Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44794-6_14
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