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    Councillors need to orient away from representations that make no difference anyway.

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    Educate and empower Councillors to exercise effective governance and compliance over the €5bn administered by local authorities annually; and to be public not private representatives. By Fiona McLoughlin Healy. The Report on the Role and Remuneration of Local Authority Elected Members written by Senior Counsel Sara Moorhead issued to Minister John Paul Phelan last year and recommended an increase of €8,000 on the current salary for Councillors, bringing it to €25,000 annually and dilution of the increase by a reduction in expenses. Subsequent debate has focused on the remuneration element of the report, diverting attention away from a concerning finding of the report that:  “It is apparent from the results of the survey that the representational role including representing constituents in areas where the Councillor could have no real effect on outcome, remains the greatest barrier to the development of a robust and independent Councillor’s role”. It further adumbrates “…While I appreciate that there needs to be some structural reform to assist Councillors in the carrying out of their duty and perhaps more devolution to Local Government, none of this can achieve anything if the Councillors themselves do not see their role in policy formulation, governance and representation on external bodies. This is illustrated by some stark statistics in the survey such as that only 5% of survey respondents felt that governance and compliance, including statutory functions, were a priority in their role as Councillors with Respondents indicating that it accounted for 12% of their overall work schedule”.  As an independent elected member in my second term in Kildare County Council I share Moorhead’s concerns. During my first term as a Councillor I represented Kildare County Council on the board of an Education and Training Board (ETB) that was, and continues to be, the subject of a Garda investigation into issues that arose in relation to procurement and other matters. I  therefore  share Moorhead’s disquiet that a minuscule 5% of respondents to the survey that informed the report, stated that governance and compliance were a priority. Imagine if you conducted a review of the board of a PLC that had a budget of €5bn a year, and 95% of the board admitted that governance and compliance were not a priority for them? Local Authorities around the country County and  City  Councils – between them administer over €5bn of public funds, annually. Imagine if you conducted a review of the board of a PLC that had a budget of €5bn a year, and 95% of the board admitted that governance and compliance were not a priority for them? I don’t think many would invest in it. Because if governance is not a priority, you cannot safeguard against abuse, fraud, or waste.  A quick search of the Standards in Public Office Commission website  yields examples of local authorities around the country that have had investigations into allegations of malpractice: Cavan, Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Sligo, Wicklow.  The Chief Executive of Kildare County Council has explained,  on a number of occasions, that the substitution of the title County or City Manager in 2014 to that of Chief Executive reflected a new reality, a more accountable local authority, reporting and accountable to its board – its elected representatives. Yet, that is not the reality for many  Councils and Councillors around the country.  And here’s where I diverge with Moorhead.  While acknowledging that “some structural reform is required to assist councillors perform their duties”, she lets the State off the hook by minimising the absolute necessity of that reform to facilitate and allow councillors to perform their governance function effectively, if at all. That I have had to resort to Freedom of Information requests from the local authority of which I am a democratically elected member should serve to demonstrate how extraordinarily difficult and sixty-consuming it can be to get the information a Councillor may need to exercise due diligence, for example in the disposal of state-owned land  or  the approval of grant allocations. The central reality is that most  Councillors focus their attentions on reps for social housing, medical cards and other areas over which they ‘have no real effect on outcome’, according to Moorhead. This  may in part explain why  the central reality is that most  Councillors focus their attentions on reps for social housing, medical cards and other areas over which they ‘have no real effect on outcome’, according to Moorhead. Representation on External Bodies Once elected to  their Council, Councillors collectively appoint each other to a range of external bodies – from local companies like LEADER partnerships to public bodies like the ETBs. They are often appointed with insufficient training or understanding of their roles as board members. Take the Education and Training Boards as an example: Councillors across the country may be appointed as Chairs  of ETBs  – organisations with budgets similar to those of local authorities – irrespective of whether they have the appropriate qualifications, experience or training for the role. Chairing a board of an organisation managing €100m plus budget and providing reassurance to the Minister for Education about the governance and operation of such an organisation, is an onerous task. Yet, there is no requirement that the Chair be selected on the basis that they have the appropriate skills for the role. In 2018 having failed to get a satisfactory response from the Chair of the KWETB, I sent the then Minister for Education a list of the breaches and potential breaches by the KWETB of the Department’s own Code of Governance for Education and Training Boards. I provided evidence that secret meetings were being held by the board contrary to the Code; that both public and private meetings were relocated from the public chamber in the Council to more difficult and costly hotel venues, in the absence of the required agreement of the board. The  Code required all ETB board meetings “to be held in public, except in exceptional circumstances” and only then when a rationale is provided for the public minutes.  The KWETB regularly held meetings in private while I was on the board and the current board continues to hold whole or parts of its   meetings in private. I understand that some of the other 16 ETBs around the country also hold their meetings in private,

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    Covid Leaves Youth With Nothing To Waste

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    As Covid takes everything from the Young, Society and the Media single them out for even rare breaches of the rules. By Zoë Jackson McGrath Youth is about the only thing worth having, and that is about the only thing youth has. Unfortunately a global pandemic has challenged even this iron law of cynicism and regret. Nature gives youth a great deal, but appears to be the only force on its side – this generation are maturing in a society typified by housing crises, limited job opportunities, boundless inequalities and a planet that appears to be wilting before our very eyes. As such, anxiety among the young had heretofore become remarkably prevalent in Ireland, the youngest country in Europe. The last thing the these already precarious conditions and pessimistic outlook of this generation needed was an all-encompassing Act of God or Nature (or the last hoorah of Twentieth-Century Man). It appears the received wisdom on Covid-19 is often purveyed by those who seem to have forgotten what it is to be young. Pope Fran- cis condemned the “cruel abandonment” of the elderly in his third encyclical published in early October. He is not wrong. The elderly and those with underlying medical conditions – the most vulnerable among us – are undeniably the most strongly affected by the pandemic. In Ireland approximately 90% per cent of those who have died with Covid-19 are over 65, a demographic which has been subject to oppressive, if necessary, cocooning and which inevitably has been suffering commensurately from angst over possible infection, and ennui around frittering away scarce months in the absence of cherished loved ones, who often tend to disproportionately illuminate the lives of those in old age. Notwithstanding these truths, the wide- spread social and emotional impact of the pandemic cannot be understated. The physiological risk is greatest for the elderly and those with co-morbidities but the indirect consequences endured by younger generations have been inadequately addressed. An EU-wide survey by Eurofound in April 2020 reported that almost a quarter of aged 18-23 in Ireland felt lonely all or most of the time over the two-week period before inter- view – the second highest rate in the 17 EU countries for which data was available. Euro- found said that the “lowest levels of mental well-being are reported among young people and those looking for work”. A recent report, ‘How’s Your Head?: Young Voices During Covid-19’ found the Covid-19 crisis had negative effects on young people’s health and well-being, especially amongst some marginalised groups. The most common negative effects related to the mental health of respondents, including overthinking, concern, worry, anxiety, depression and a sense of utter hopelessness. In all 751 (35 per cent) of 2,173 people aged between 15 and 24 said not being able to see their friends, boyfriends and girlfriends, was the most difficult consequence of the pandemic and pursuant lockdown. They report a distinct lack of “timely” and “clear” communication during such a transient and formative period in their lives about “important matters”, such as the Leaving Certificate and college accommodation. One in 10 could not name a single positive about their pandemic experience. What effect can this have on the innocence, effervescence and adventurousness of youth? The youth have been deprived of rites-of-passage and legitimate youthful expectations due to Covid-19, left unable to engage in the activities that should colour our formative years. Young people work disproportionately in retail, hospitality and tourism – these sectors have been devastated by the fallout of the virus. Unemployment among those aged 15-24 in Ireland is estimated at 51 per cent compared to 26% in the population generally before the October ‘level 5’ lockdown. Economic scarring results in young people who leave school or college in recessions being doomed to occupy a lower wage bracket for the entire duration of their careers compared with those who graduate in more economically favourable times. According to Irish Times economist, David McWilliams: “When American baby boomers (born 1946-1964) hit a median age of 35 in 1990, they collectively owned 21 per cent of the wealth. By contrast, my generation, the Gen Xers (born 1965-1980) who collectively turned 35 in 2008, owned just 9 per cent of American national wealth. The Millennials (born 1981-1996), are on average 31 now. They only own 3 per cent of America’s wealth. It’s hard to see them ever catching up under present policies”. Over four in ten younger adults in the CSO’s Social Impact of Covid-19 Survey reported that the pandemic had a negative financial impact on them, compared to two in ten of respondents aged 70 and over. Leaving Cert 2020 has been an infamous debacle: students were robbed of experiences previously taken for granted, tirelessly rehearsed plays were never staged, hours of training and tactics for sports finals went to waste and the concept of a graduation ceremony to celebrate and even say goodbye to their friends was unthinkable. They then had to endure the distorted calculation of grades, compounded by fundamental data errors and revisions: a disgraceful experience for these individuals to be forced to undergo at a stage in life where pressure has always been notoriously heaped on them. For those who then made it to college the would-be ‘college experience’ has been utterly diminished by the virtualisation of lectures, reducing education to academia, which should be merely one facet of this varied, enriching time. Young people work disproportionately in retail, hospitality and tourism – these sectors have been devastated by the fallout of the virus.  Playing or watching live sports have been almost eliminated. Night-life is entirely gone with no promise of a future for an unprecedented amount of time. Forming new friendships and relationships is almost impossible, and temporary emigration has become impracticable. This demographic have endured “by far the biggest well-being hit of anybody who hasn’t directly suffered from the disease”, confirms the ESRI’s Behavioural Research Unit. When America’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention carried out a survey this summer, it found that one

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    UNambitious

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    Ireland will again exercise its place on the Security Council to promote consensus rather than vision and values. By John-Vivian Cooke Ireland took a seat on the UN Security Council for the term 2021/22 on 1 January. This is the fulfilment of a key strategic goal of Irish foreign policy. However, having secured that seat on the Security Council, what will we do with it? If the record of our last term on the Security Council in 2001/2 is anything to go by, the answer will be disappointingly little.  Our feeble performance then was despite a highly professional and effective team representing us in New York but largely due to a  deliberate choice to set modest ambitions: a tactic that shows every sign of being repeated again in January. The tragedy is that Ireland is capable of so much more. There are two reasons to be pessimistic that we will deliver this time around. The first is the excessive strain likely to be placed on the organisational capacity of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFA). The Department`s budget could well face deep cuts as a consequence of the current Covid-19 recession, a recession which could be made worse by a hard Brexit in the new year. Any cuts to the DFA`s budget will occur precisely at a time when it is trying to meet the additional demands for resources for our Security Council term. Moreover, Ireland’s Security Council  agenda will have to compete for funding with other budgetary priorities such as meeting our international development aid commitments and the planned expansion of the number of missions around the world. The plan to open 26 new diplomatic missions has only reached the half way mark and the if the department is to meet its targets under the Global Ireland strategic plan, funding will need to be found for the remaining 12 missions. Even if the department finds a way to balance its budget, there will be other pressures on its institutional resources.  There are absolute limits to the time that any minister, in general, can dedicate to any specific policy issue and Brexit will be the topic that will preoccupy the Minister for Foreign Affairs. This preoccupation is set to be replicated throughout our diplomatic structures with the consequence that expertise and experience that, in normal circumstances, would be available to support the UN team, will be diverted to manage Brexit. No matter the quality of our diplomatic representation at the UN, the ability to set policy priorities and give direction on diplomatic strategy can only come from the legitimate and formal authority of the elected minister. Second, even in ideal domestic circumstances, the structure of international relations imposes intrinsic limitations on Ireland`s ability to determine outcomes at the UN. The distinction between the elected members of the Security Council and the five permanent members (P5) institutionalises the privileged position that the P5 members are granted under the UN charter in their role as Great Powers. Notwithstanding the notional sovereign equality of states in the charter, and under international law generally, the blunt truth of international relations is that the P5 do act differently and they are treated differently from other, lesser, states. Great Powers are qualitatively different from all other states by virtue of the resources they possess: elements of power that simply are not available to even medium-size states. The quintessential qualification for Great Power status is the ability to project military power, both conventional and nuclear. The measure of a state`s power is proportionate to the magnitude of its forces; the distance they can be projected; and the duration for which they can be deployed. This power, in turn, rests on the fiscal and economic resources of the state.   But to acknowledge the difference among states is not to condone or excuse it. The fact that the US ¨doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus and we petty men walk under his huge legs¨ does not mean that we must ¨peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves”. But, if we are to accomplish honourable ends, we must set ourselves far more ambitious goals while still retaining an unsentimental understanding of how world politics operates. There can be no mistaking that the distribution of power creates a difference of kind rather than a difference in degree between the permanent and elected members of the Security Council. Some analysts describe the P5 as having a systemic role in constituting international norms and institutions while small states such as Ireland are ¨System Ineffectual¨. Yet the temptation is for elected members to see themselves as merely mini versions of the Great Powers and to develop strategies that compensate for their lack of power. The Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide, succumbed to exactly that temptation in her comment that: ¨(N)o-one can take care of Norwegian interests like Norway can. To uphold and strengthen the multilateral system and rules-based order, that`s a core foreign policy interest for Norway”. Instead we should adopt a new sui generis understanding of how small states such as Ireland operate in international politics. The established perspective on international relations treats all states as unitary actors that exercise various forms of power in pursuit of their national interests. This puts small states in the same category as Great Powers and predicts that the foreign policy of small states will be oriented to increasing their autonomy. In practice, the opposite occurs: small states seek to limit the autonomy of the Great Powers by enmeshing them in the constraints of international norms and regimes. Simon Coveney acknowledged as much when he said ¨(T)he basis for our campaign to be on the Security Council was to be vocal on these key issues around adherence to international law standards that apply through international structures and systems that protect small and weaker states as well keep dominant and powerful states in check”. Indeed, the current ‘Global Island Ireland’ strategy paper makes the point that ¨the European Union and United Nations in amplifying Ireland’s voice and extending

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