Lack of Local Government Undermines Social and Civic Viability of Ireland's New Suburbs

Apr 10, 2006

The quality of life and civic engagement of communities within the new suburbs emerging across Ireland will prove difficult to sustain without a change in the institutions of local government, according to a new study launched on 10 April by Dr Maureen Gaffney, Chairperson of the National Economic and Social Forum, at Trinity College Dublin’s Policy Institute.

The study, Civic Engagement and the Governance of Irish Suburbs, recommends that local voluntary associations be given a statutory role in local government and community forums established to support the involvement of residents in local decision-making.

Authors Dr Michel Peillon, Dr Mary P. Corcoran and Dr Jane Gray of the Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth, address the policy implications of suburban growth in Ireland, examining the social fabric of Ratoath, Co. Meath as an example. The study explores the rapid expansion of new suburbs and the ways in which social capital and community ties are generated in this new suburb. The study finds that the lack of institutions of local government at that level negatively impacts on resident’s efforts to manage the affairs of their local community.

“While suburbs are often presented as soulless and uniform places, the findings of the Ratoath study present a picture of a community in which many residents are attached to the place where they live, belong to local networks of family, friends and neighbours, participate in local voluntary associations and want to be involved in local public affairs. Residents are particularly keen to be involved in tackling what they perceive as key issues impacting on the quality of life of their community for example the unregulated nature of development, a lack of basic amenities, access to school facilities and high traffic volumes on inadequate road infrastructure,” explained Dr Peillon, a former Visiting Research Fellow at TCD’s Policy Institute.

“Despite many Ratoath residents attempting to do something to address these problems, they were aware of the ineffectiveness of their action. Residents of new suburbs such as Ratoath face an uphill struggle in this as they have encountered an institutional void - that is, a lack of institutions of local government at that level. Hence residents rely heavily on local political networks and politicians to ensure access to the formal structures of local government. Rarely consulted and unable to participate in the decision-making process, they can only uphold their views and interests negatively, through various forms of resistance to external pressures and interests”.

A partnership model to address this institutional void is proposed in the study. Applied to local government, below county level, it would involve the following:

• A commitment to the formal involvement of voluntary organisations in local and county decision-making processes
• Granting of a statutory function of meaningful consultation to representative bodies of local residents through the establishment of a “community council” (comprised of a federation of all associations operating in the locality)
• Granting representative organisations a statutory role in local government: this would require formal regulation of the way in which representative organisations are constituted and operated to ensure they are representative of their membership and constituency
• Provision of state aid to support the development and activities of representative local organisations.

The net effect of the statutory establishment of a “community council” would be to provide a meaningful pathway to support local residents in accessing the structure of local government and to assist them to sustain their civic engagement and to address the institutional void, which undermines the social and civic viability of Ireland’s new suburbs.