Minister places importance on improving public services

Improving services to the public lies at the heart of any new model of public administration for Northern Ireland, NIO Minister, Ian Pearson said today.

The Minister was speaking after a round of meetings with the main political parties to update them on the developing model of public administration.

He said: “I envisage the Assembly with departments sitting at regional level with responsibility for policy, strategic planning, setting standards and monitoring performance.

"At a local level, larger more powerful councils could have responsibilities for an increased range of functions such as regeneration, environmental services, some planning functions and possibly local roads.

“I see councils having an important role in ensuring co-ordinated service delivery in their area and this co-ordination could be further enhanced by giving councils a major role in community planning for their local population.

“In my view councils need to be of a size and scale to make a significant difference. To me, and to many experts who have looked at this issue, this suggests around five to eight councils, but I will want to discuss this with the political parties in the coming months."

Mr Pearson said he had been encouraged by the support for the Review of Public Administration (RPA) provided by the political parties and had listened carefully to concerns they had raised. These included the need for sufficient checks and balances to allow new local government structures to operate in a fair and equitable way.

“I have also heard their fears about the possible loss of local identity in larger councils and I will be looking at ways to ensure local identity and diversity is not lost,” Mr Pearson said.

The Minister also discussed the future financing of local government with the parties.

He said: “The Review of Public Administration may lead to major changes and clearly it would be imprudent, at this stage, for councils and other public bodies to commit to significant expenditure that would increase costs and the debt burden on ratepayers now and in the future.

“I hope to hold further discussions with the political parties in September before issuing firm proposals in the autumn.”

(MB)