Official claims that Irish local councils are managing their finances perfectly cannot be accurate, Minister Patrick O’Donovan has suggested, while calling for a significant increase in the oversight of local government spending.
Speaking to members of the media outside Government Buildings in Dublin today ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting, the Minister for Communications, Media and Sport said there is currently a “gap” in how the state monitors local authority accounts, saying that “people need to see value for money” and that there needs to be “trust” in the system.
O’Donovan, a former member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), argued that it is unrealistic for every council in the country to receive a “100% clean bill of health” every year, and that he has been raising this issue “for years”.
“Every year the local authorities get clean bills of health from the Local Government Auditor,” O’Donovan said.
“Now that’s actually not a financial possibility. Like, that is not financially possible that every single local authority gets a 100% clean bill of health.
“And I think it’s high time that the local authorities comes under the control of Comptroller and Auditor General.”
The Minister has proposed that local authority managers should appear before the PAC on a “weekly basis” to account for public money.
O’Donovan’s comments came after he was asked about a 2023 Gript interview with Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, who claimed at the time that spending issues were widespread across state agencies and local government.
In those 2023 remarks, McGuinness had warned that poor governance was a systemic issue.
“Right across agencies and the spend of public money, there are issues,” the Carlow-Kilkenny TD said.
“There’s issues in local government. Poor spend, poor value for money, no accountability. That’s how I see it.”
The Minister said today that he agreed with the “thrust” of McGuinness’s earlier warnings.
The debate over financial oversight has been reignited by a “stark” review into the Arts Council, which is expected to lead to a “fundamentally different” organisation.
The agency faced significant criticism after a botched IT project, which was originally meant to cost €3 million, was scrapped in 2024 after costs reached €6.7 million.
O’Donovan said today that the government intends to follow the recommendations of this review in their entirety.
“We have to restore the public’s confidence in the organisation,” the Minister said.
“We also have to make sure that people who felt excluded for one reason or another from their artistic output need to be included.”
The Minister noted that the initial report into the Arts Council’s failings was ordered by his own department following a “forensic examination”. He is expected to bring the full findings of the expert advisory committee to Cabinet within the next fortnight.