The solution to Ireland's problems 

You forgot the part where the Mayor creates a shell company to buy up the primrose hill land well in advance of the development announcement and then sells it back to the local authority with a 300% mark up. That is generally what happened quite often in local authorities in Ireland, especially in areas with a historically dominant and entrenched political party in the majority. Jokes aside (yet not really a joke), this video was very impressive. I've been involved in Irish politics most of my life and my own father was a local Councillor for over 20 years and I've rarely seen it explained so well. It certainly earned an automatic subscription. I think watching this video would benefit a lot of Irish people.

Was glad to take part. Well done!

This video needs to be beamed into each and every Irish household. Right now. Phenomenal, just brilliant.

This is actually an excellent video to give context to voters in the local elections. People in my local LEA are demanding stuff from councillors which is just totally out of their scope.

Love the idea of a idea of stronger local democracy. But I don't think directly elected mayors are the way to go. I come from Italy where we have directly elected mayors, but, especially in bigger cities, they tend to do whatever they want during their mandate, without respect for the wishes of the people. And that's because with directly elected mayors the Councils count very little and can't hold the mayor properly accountable during their mandate. As an outside prospective I think a mayor elected by the Council and accountable to it, similarly to the parliamentary system at Ireland's national level, should be better.

I live in Ballina. It has been totally disserved by planning, infrastructure and investment. Westport, which is a third the size, is bustling with tourists, thriving arts and music scene as well as pretty pointless brand new motorway. Ballina, by contrast, is a massive traffic jam, with terrible primary arteries to Galway and Dublin. And a lot of this is because of the likes of Michael Ring, Enda Kenny and of course Pádraic Flynn who served their constituents in Castlebar and Westport. It's disgraceful

Amazing stuff lads. Time to get on the streets and tell the government we want 26 mayors!

I think elected mayors are a great idea provided they have the authority to implement changes. That then begs the question, will the central government allow that authority to transfer from them to the local level? Certainly Galway city would massively benefit fron that we've been largely ignored by government and the consequences are obvious. We should demand from TDs in the election next year elected mayors with more local authority. I'd be interested to see how the current sitting TDs react to that.

Very insightful. Well done!

Love your videos man. God bless

Ireland has so much potential, it's a shame the state it currently is right now.

Great programme. Things need to change

These videos are so well-done. Other countries with similar problems would benefit from their own versions. You're showing precisely how to communicate policy solutions effectively to a general audience.

Voted for mayor today! I’m hopefully we get someone with vision who can make a strong impact.

This is amazing content. A lot of candidates who ran and some of which who won in Drogheda, have a vision of making Drogheda a city. I'm from Drogheda and recently bought a house and it's technically in Meath. Drogheda is administered by both Louth and Meath county councils and it seems like Dundalk and Navan come first and Drogheda is an afterthought. We have serious issues with decay and dereliction in the town center, lack of parking, awful traffic, urban sprawl, lack of facilities (especially for young children), job creation, crime and antisocial behaviour, housing and homelessness, keeping the place clean and really being a commuter town to Dublin. I wonder what ideas you have that could improve life for the people of Drogheda. I love this town. Feel like it's got tonnes of potential to be infinitely better though.

Great video - subscribed and liked - thank you.

Very insightful and good to see this information being covered (we should all know this system after doing cspe aka Civic, Social and Political Education clases in schools) hoever this information is blanked Leaves me wonderinf at least how would this ever change since those in power have their power now and wont relinquish it

So informative! 2 issues 1. As your video is partisan. There was obviously a reason why they moved to centralisation therefore a look into why they was (and why it didn’t subsequently work) would have made your argument more robust. 2. Although it was a hypothetical scenario - it Would ne better to refer to the major as them rather than he. Amazing video though - thanks so much!

Another great video, well done.

Great video! Well done as always

Incredible video - we need root and branch reform.

Excellent information, brilliantly presented. Thanks for informing me and keep up the good work.

10:00 would job security not help incentivise some risk taking? If my job was on the line, I think I would be more risk-averse in general, because I wouldn't want to lose my job. I can also understand how more localism can help with some things because the people making decisions are closer to their constituents, but I'd also see this potentially stifling things like housing even more because people in general do not want more houses built in their own area, and by definition the people who would move into an area will not have any say on it during the planning phase. Empowering local politicians only seems like it would empower those voices to put in more rules to limit new buildings. This sort of thing would work if residents wanted new changes and improvements but in my experience, residents generally tend to want things to just basically stay the same forever. They don't want noisy construction work, they don't want disruption to existing infrastructure, and they don't want new people moving in and) because they expect that all they will do is cause more traffic and use more local resources (and those negative perceptions only exacerbate for renters, recipients of social housing, or most of all, refugees/asylum seekers). They often don't even want new public transport services. There are many things like this that are good/necessary from a big picture perspective but that local individuals are not going to like. The point at the end about it only needing one place to do these things and show success is fair, but I would expect this to only work in smaller places without a lot of existing population. In larger built areas where more jobs exist and more housing and services are needed like Dublin and Cork, I don't see people wanting increased density and changing the infrastructure in their own area. Even if this haw a net societal benefit and is "good" in hindsight for the people who do end up living there.

Keep up the good work. This information is crucial to get to all citizens of Ireland.

Top stuff as per usual

Another video that is absolutely out of the park, I really think this channel is going to blow up in the future. It should be prescribed 🎉

Interesting to see Greece, birthplace of Democracy as the most centralised country. I wonder if they have the same issues we do

There shouldn't be an "incentive". You shouldn't take the job unless you actually want to do things for the positive. And if your doing a shite job get kicked out and have a bi election to replace them.

Great content

The Irish wrestled control and ownership of the land from foreign land owners by boycotting them. So, an organized national rent strike would force REITs to cut their losses and sell. This selling of REIT properties would make housing very affordable, very fast. By forcing house prices down, rents will be forced down too. But if all the tenants in the country do organize and boycott rent payments, they will all be in a position to buy their own property outright within a few years because nobody buys property while prices are falling. In fact, falling house prices terrifies the government more than anything. It is the reason they make sure they never build enough social housing.

This exploration and the roadmap it envisions gets so much right (as does this series which is distinguished by its constructive, intelligent approach which is not hobbled by its own cynicism). The absolute key point you have identified is that to overcome the charge of "parish pump" politics, a better calibre of candidate needs to be attracted through the creation of more autonomous offices with real power and funding. We certainly have the talent but currently we seem to attract the local auctioneers marooned by life and education who lack the perspective, vision and experience to execute any real change that doesn't involve road surfaces. Really great work.

amazing video!! keep putting out amazing content!

Remember Mark well from my time in GMIT (now ATU) Mayo Campus!

This channel is excellent

Man sometimes i with life was like city skylines we could just plop infrastructure like this so fast😭😂

Has been been siad on this channel before, but I think devolution to counties would also greatly ease the process of Irish unification. Counties like Antrim and Down, especially with Belfast as its own council area, are likely to remain majority Protestant in a united Ireland. Having decision making done at a county level could serve to ease their concerns and mitigate the potenetial adverse impact of unionist parties being excluded from coalition governments in Dublin. Further, knowing that issues like policing are being managed on a local level could reduce tensions and the feeling of being taken over by Dublin. Great video. Keep up the great work!

Best Irish channel going!

Subscribed! More of this please 👏

Great to see you getting on the ground and talking to real people about this

Very interesting

There's something a little disheartening about seeing such clear solutions, both to the structural problems in Ireland's political system and also the development visualisations in comparison to what is actually being built around Ireland (sprawling semi-detached housing estates that are 20-30 minutes walk from any local services), because of the low likelihood that things will move this better direction any time soon. As always, so much appreciation for the time you spend making high-quality videos like this about Irish topics.

Great video

Totally agree. The planning permission system is a complete joke. We need building and it just can't happen with the current system

Great idea’ bring power and accountability back home to each of our counties.

Do the county/municipal executives have anything like housing goals that they have to meet? I know that in California the state is setting goals for new housing units that cities have to meet to retain control of their zoning regulation. Perhaps Ireland can do it the other way around where the chief executive gets the sack if they don't meet housing goals and the town council gets control of planning permissions.

the EU is based on centralization of power, they do not want a devolution of power and wont support it. So the obstacle is bigger than the Irish government. The idea is common sense but its hard to see how it could realistically be achieved

Great video…..really highlights the small minded, power grab thinking that’s hindering and restricting the country. With a system akin to this the small size and scale of Ireland could become a huge natural advantage

So, how do we get a major ?

After the 2008 financial crisis, there was a noticeable shift in planning authority away from local government. This change was prompted by revelations of corruption, with local councils influencing the behavior of the planning department. However, there is a need for oversight to prevent unsuitable developments, such as abandoned ghost estates in small Irish towns.

I was made an offer under the Local Authority Home Loan. I bid and won a house and when I attempted to draw down the loan, the County Council were the one who thwarted my efforts. They refused the credit saying it needed too much work. I took their list of works and had professional firms price the work on a worst case scenario basis. I came up with quotes of under €20k. The Council’s refusal was because based on the same list, the estimate was €100k “so PFO, basically. The local authority used its only discretion under the scheme to thwart me, so I personally have little faith that stronger local authorities will do much more than be a gravy train for lazy, cowardly bureaucrats.

Just your average citizen, but in my intuition is that centralising of things makes them more effecient due to economies of scale. Your videos definitely make me consider local government having my power as a good thing. One question though would be when you say we have centralised our government so much is it fair to compare other countries that may have local regions that are the same size as Irelands population. Keep up the great content, gives me many things to consider.

So refreshing

I want to donate without going through the option on RU-vid? Brilliant video, thanks.

I think the suggested plan would work if implemented, but it will never be attempted, our government is too dysfunctional to even try address issues

One question. If we move to a decentralized system where there are locally elected mayors , sould there be one mayor per county. If you look at Cork, there could be multiple mayors in a single county for Cork City, Cork County, West Cork etc.

Great stuff, a more progressive Ireland never happen we are all going to died before that happens

Mostly a great video, however I don't agree that a mayor should necessarily be directly elected. I don't know much about Ireland's political system, however I do know the German system. Here we have (in general) four levels of government with each its own council: federal(Bundestag), state(Landtag), county(?)(Kreistag) and municipal/town(Gemeinde-/Stadtrat). In only the county there is a directly elected representative (confusingly called Landrat), these elections usually have the lowest voter turnout. Primarily because nobody knows what they do, but also because when voting for one person it is likely you won't end up being represented at all. For instance in the last Landrat elections I voted for the centre-left candidat (although I usually vote farther left than that), that person lost, so now I don't feel represented at all by that person. So only in councils everybody gets a voice, although governing coalitions are also formed there

I’d argue that all politics in Ireland is local. If you want something done locally you need to contact councillors and TDs. It results arguably in national issues failing to be tackled. It also results in a complete lack of jointed up thinking and development. I’d also argue that there are way too many local authorities, it needs to be more regional.

It's a sad fact that during the brown envelope era of the 90's and 00's at least things got built. Now it's the planning objectors who are being paid off instead. I like the ideas for public amenties. Somewhere nice to play pool/snooker is becoming rare these days.

I think replacing the Chief Executive with the Mayor who is elected by the people and is also watched by the Central Government for corruption or dereliction of duty as Mayor would be far better than the current system we have today. Local issues back in the hands of locals who the Mayor is accountable too in the next election and to the oversight body who monitors the Mayors for corruption etc.

🎉🎉🎉

18:28 "Conversation about what could be" We could also learn from Bcn's mistakes and stop subsidising on-street parking anno 2024?

Ireland needs a tax system fit for purpose, building more houses is all well and good but if the only people who can afford them are the top 10% then we're making the problem worse. The high net worth individuals need to start paying their share and the average wage needs to rise to meet the cost of an average home. We need to start taxing wealth more and earnings less. There's plenty of money in this country, but it's concentrated in areas beyond the scope of the tax system.

Bloody fantastic video, hats off to you for the quality production👏👏👏. Its amazing we can now get this quality of video for free on RU-vid, talking about local Irish politics, meanwhile RTE force us to pay them a license fee, for filtered biased drivle we don't want to watch. Great video 👏👏👏

Have you considered Charleville,Celbridge,The area directly north of The Curragh racecourse,Leixlip Louisa Bridge (and maybe a couple metro lines underground too especially in Limerick as the employment areas are far away from the train station (Raheen and Castletroy))

Bring back the Tuatha

If any of ye are ever feeling down about the state of the country. Go for a hike or a long walk. Genuinely cheered me up about where we live the other week doing the blue route in glendalough. Mind your heads lads and ladies

Nice one @14:40

Maybe we could devolve decision making from the EU and the WEF to the Dail before we look at local government?

I would like an even more competitive system where you reduce taxes and regulations and allow competition among individuals and businesses instead of localities. Then there is a constant feedback mechanism instead of only being able to elect someone new every 5 years. But moving to localities is a move in the right direction, less centralised is almost always better.

More brown envelopes and media soundbites, you say?

Subsidiarity is a key part of any well run society. Loosely speaking It is the principle that states that decisions should be made at the lowest competent authority that is relevant to the problem. The purpose of the higher authority is to increase the competency of the person below them so that as much as possible they can exercise their authority in a competent manner when it comes to their relevant sphere of influence.

What can we, as citizens of Ireland, do to move government more locally?

Great video, throughly thought out and researched. But one thing - the ding noise when text etc pops up on screen is very distracting and a little annoying! Doesn’t take away from it, but it is very irking

Local autonomy would have been great during the pandemic, any piece on housing that doesn't address immigration isn't comprehensive though.

ballina bowling championship -- can see it now

Malcolm suggests that councillors have little to no power, but it hasn't stopped him running for council in Gorey for 30 years! Why run for council if you've no power? The title? The 25k? The little ego boost?! If it was left to local councillors to run the show in Wexford, we'd have one-off housing all over the place, baking in costs for society as a whole. There's a very good reason why some powers were taken away from local councillors (Liffey Valley Shopping Centre anyone?). Wexford makes a net gain out of LPT because property tax payers in the county (myself included) don't pay enough to fund services provided by the council. In 2023, the equalisation fund figure for Wexford County Council was €2,049,418. A bit of perspective in the whole debate wouldn't go amiss.

Barcelona style apartment blocks in Ballina? You're off your rocker no doubt! 😅😅😅

Elected Mayors are absolutely not the panacea, if anything they make it easier for central government to blame local government (again see the very public conflict between Andy Burnham and the Tory government). It confuses cause and effect. There are plenty of councils, e.g. again in the UK where the councillors have significant power and influence locally. Mayoralties are the worst as they elevate the role of personality in politics. There is a housing crisis in London for the entire time they have had a directly electrd Mayor.

Your suggestion to scrap Irish water is very short sighted. The country need to think strategically about its water and wastewater infrastructure. The infrastructure itself is too complex and expensive to be distributed at the whims of local authorities. Furthermore we would end up back in the same situation with local authorities using money allocated for water infrastructure to supply other services, the water infrastructure ending up in a sorry state and then needing a bail out from central government. A centralised authority is the only way to ensure money is ring fenced only for this public service, plus its actually one of the more efficient quangos as it was developed during tough times rather than during the boom.

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me that Ireland has the highest democracy index. I replied "democracy feckin what? Because we have a gay prime minister, gay marriage is recognised by the state, that doesn't mean that there is democracy here. Check out the situation of housing, check the planning law, and you will realise that everything is centralised by Dublin." This conversation happened way before Covid.

I love how you interview politicians from different parties, all seem to be singing from a similar hymn-sheet which is very interesting! One thing that viewers might notice is the reference to the hypothetical mayor as "he", and that all politicians interviewed were men. My aim isnt to disparage your brilliant work, rather to highlight how further diversity might enrich the arguments and perspectives in your videos... Your channel is fantastic, and no doubt it'll continue to improve! Thank you for further educating me on Ireland's political system, and how it might be improved!

Will local mayors not make NIBYism worse?

Meath coco already tried that in Drogheda and it went very very badly (well maybe not so bad but the land isnt being developed so kinda not)

Half the comments deleted and the biggest thread on here is gone after two hours hhmmmm

@18:00 proper Dutch-style bike lanes...

I know you love to target bord bia, but I went to their festival yesterday. I've never seen a more chaotic and badly organised festival. The maps and information were hilariously useless, we had no idea what was going on and where. It seems very reminiscent to the quango discussion point. These guys have weird budgets to pull off random things with no accountability.

you really don't want local government in such small country. that would just mean more politicians controlling your live an livin from taxpayer money + even more difficult to control expenses etc.

Maith thú Polysee! 👍

There's a decent amount of local representation in the UK and the housing crisis isn't better here. Institutional buyers and international buyers are far more responsible for the problems we face. The root of course is the treatment of housing (a human right) as a commodity, a store of wealth, a thing to be speculated on by idle capital.

Irelands population increased by 3.5% in 2023 (300,000 people) housing will never catch up

sounds great but the reality is you get Hazel Chu.

So.. maybe I’m dumb.. but why TF are the managers anonymous?! This is extremely dubious to say the absolute least. Why have the people allowed this for so long? I’m so confused.

Hi

Love when you say Ireland needs housing and then you just do transit oritated development 😅, means your right on the money, now i wouldt do basement parking you tbh dont need a car if your right next to a train station in my opinion but i get it im weird 😂 Sigh cork not getting a mayor was a bad choice, its gonna be interesting tbh if Limerick mayor will do well tho 🤔🤔

You can't call it corruption though. It's not that - It's that you didn't participate in the locality, or you have no needs in the locality. We all know that it's corruption at a base level, county council.

ballina will be the bologna of ireland if this was to happen

Solution is the church, we need to play a more active role in them. The church ought to own more land

How would you even begin to go about this? You would need to get all the useless TDs on board first and sure isn't that the problem in the first place?

Christian revival is needed. Because Christians care