REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE RECEPTION IN ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN TO MARK THE CENTENARY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE RECEPTION TO MARK THE CENTENARY OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF COUNTY COUNCILS
I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Áras an Uachtaráin on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the General Council of County Councils in Ireland.
I would like to say a special ‘Céad Míle Fáilte’ to our guests from your colleague associations in Britain who are joining us this evening for this celebration. It is particularly appropriate, given the all-Ireland nature of the original General Council, that I should also have the pleasure of welcoming our local government colleagues in Northern Ireland.
A warm welcome also to the Lord Mayors and Chairpersons of individual local authorities who are joining us here today.
Most of all, however, this is an occasion to commend and congratulate the members and staff of the General Council for your invaluable work over the years in supporting local democracy in Ireland. I would like to pay a special tribute to your Cathaoirleach, Councillor Tom Kelleher, for his skilful leadership of the General Council in these fast-moving times.
The role of local representatives is not an easy one. But then, you can take consolation from the words of John F. Kennedy. He said ‘my experience of government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully co-ordinated, there is not much going on’.
In a similar vein, Charles de Gaulle commented that ‘to govern is always to choose among disadvantages’. It is a fact rarely appreciated by the general public who, understandably, would ideally like to see the miracle of the loaves and fishes repeated on a daily basis in every county in Ireland: more and better services from the same limited basket of resources.
The unfortunate reality, of course, is a little more prosaic. Politics is the business of trade-offs and compromises, of redistribution in accordance with the greatest need and the greatest public good. This is not particularly conducive to popularity among all of the people all of the time. George Bernard Shaw told us that ‘a government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always depend on the support of Paul’. Needless to say, the support of Peter is a bit more problematic.
Nevertheless, one of the most important issues for local democracy as we approach the new Millennium – and indeed the June elections - will be that of public confidence in, and respect for, the local government system. Democracy, not least at local level, can only be effective where it has the trust and faith of the people it serves. In many ways, local democracy in Ireland has had a steeper hill to climb that in other countries. Our system evolved from a colonial base where local government was associated more often with local rule than local democracy. In Europe, by contrast, local systems of democracy often predated national government as an accepted mode of representation. Therefore they had stronger roots in the life of the community and, unsurprisingly, a stronger and more powerful system of local government.
That legacy has been difficult to overcome, but substantial progress has undoubtedly been made thanks to an increasing focus on customer needs and on co-operation with local groups. Indeed one of the great challenges and opportunities for local authorities in the years ahead will be to tap into the extraordinary energy and vibrancy of local partnerships, voluntary and community groups that have sprung up in every part of the country. These partnerships are transforming not just the physical landscape but also the landscape of experience, of power, of skills – and transforming them for the better as the pooling of resources makes for more effective responses to local needs and roots ownership of those responses right at the heart of communities.
Building communities is not easy. A random collection of houses and people has to gel or be made to gel. Your work is an integral part of the process of community building, sustaining and development.
I have no doubt that local representatives will rise to this challenge. For your members have a proven track record of exceptional dedication and commitment to the welfare of your constituents over the past hundred years. It is a difficult and often thankless job. On behalf of the Irish people, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you.
In particular, I would like to commend the work of the members and staff of this General Council of County Councils, as the primary representative body for local government in Ireland. I wish you every success in your future endeavours.
I would like to finish by saying a few words of thanks, in advance, to Nuala Hayse, Ellen Cranitch and Ann Marie Farrell, who will be reading for us this evening from ‘The Countess Cathleen’ by W.B. Yeats. It is an appropriate choice, as it was the first of Yeats’ plays to be produced, an event which took place in May 1899 within two weeks of the foundation of the General Council and, coincidentally, at the same venue in Dublin.
Thank you once again for joining me here this evening. I hope this will prove to be a most enjoyable and memorable evening for everyone.