2. Ireland uses 2 methods to administer itself
- a county council system e.g Cork County Council
- a regional system e.g South West Fisheries board
3. Local government uses the county system with county councils, city councils and town councils.
4. A county is defined by its physical boundaries and it is usually rivers or mountain passes that separate each county.
5. County Councils are responsible for road maintenance, planning, waste disposal, public lighting, fire services and social housing.
6. Funding is got from Central Government and from the collection of local taxes like business rates, car tax and the new local property tax.
7. There are 29 County councils with Tipp having 2 and Dublin having 3.
8. The councils are run by a combination of civil servants and elected councilors.
9. The County Manager is the top civil servant who has the overall responsibility of the running of the county.
11. He/She is answerable to the Minister of the Environment, Phil Hogan.
12. He has take the decision to abolish Town Councils in 2014 as he feels it is an unnecesscary layer of bureauracy,
13. Ireland is divided into 8 economic regions by the National Government.
14. There is the South West, Mid West, West, South East, Border west, Border East, Midlands and Dublin.
14. The Regional authorities examine such areas as the industrial development, health services, population stats and environmental condition of the regions.
15. Funding comes from central government but mainly from E.U structural funding.
16. An example would be the South Easts S.e.e.ds programme to create an employment strategy for the South East Region. 300,000 euro of the 400,000euro cost came from the E.U
17. Each Regional Authority must produce a 6 year development plan which outline future concerns or else funding is withheld.
