Put RPA on hold, says MEP
27 February 2006
In a speech in Lisburn tonight , DUP MEP Jim Allister, will address the controversy over the reform of local government, declaring that the defining issue in shaping local government is whether or not we will have a stable devolved government. Referring back to the McCrory reforms in 1973, the MEP will say it got it badly wrong by presuming there would be operative devolution, whereas a very different form of local government is necessary if there is no devolved power at Stormont. Thus, the MEP contends, the RPA should be put on hold till we see if durable devolution is attainable and, if devolution cannot be achieved, then a single super council at Stormont may be best.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister says:-
“Politics without pragmatism produces failure. The Government’s attempt to push ahead the Review of Public Administration, with no regard to context, could easily repeat the mistakes previously made under the McCrory reforms, when local government was last reorganised.
Local Government is very important. The type and extent of local government required in a small place like Northern Ireland very much depends on whether it has to operate with or without devolution. McCrory designed a structure of local government which anticipated operating within a framework of devolution, yet for most of the last 35 years there has been no devolution, thus producing a democratic deficit in the context of weak local government.
It would be a repetition of the folly of the McCrory reforms to implement radical changes to public administration till we know whether or not we will have devolution. If acceptable devolution is attained then we need less local government, but if it proves unattainable, then, there would be a powerful case, for example, for a single super Council at Stormont, with enhanced powers overseeing streamlined education and health provision and structures.
Hence, it is utter folly to push ahead with overhauling local government till we know if durable and democratic devolution is attainable. I, therefore, call for a pause for reflection on the reform of local government till we have the answer to this crucial question. Forging ahead now is wrong, because if, as it quite likely, devolution does not materialise we are left with a Northern Ireland geographically split down the middle, orange to the east and green to the west, whereas, what we are more likely to need in those circumstances is a unified Northern Ireland administered more centrally.
Lord Rooker, with only a passing interest in Northern Ireland, will be long gone, but we will have to live with the folly of his precipitative RPA for generations to come.”
