Wicklow Councillor Says Public Representative's Powers Being Undermined By Officials

A Wicklow councillor has expressed his concerns about what he describes as a gradual erosion of County Councillor’s powers and input on all issues involving the running of their local authority.

Tom Fortune says the main responsibility of elected councillors is to hold the executive to account, but he says this is being passed over to unelected committees such as town teams, which includes unelected officials from a council, who select the councillors they want on the team.  

Councillor fortune says these teams then make important decision with little or no accountability to elected municipal district members. He also says there has been a re-emergence of the dual mandate system which was done away with 20 years ago.

He says this is now happening through the backdoor,  where councillors elected to the Dail have selected their replacement, when the vacant seat should be decided by the people.

Tom Fortune says monthly meetings have been reduced from two to one, while he believes standing orders are being manipulated.  He also says GDPR- is being used to prevent councillors from representing the people who elected them.