Provinces vs. counties

For a country with such a small population and land area, we have an excessive amount of administrative bodies, all governing 26 different counties. With the exception of sports, these counties are culturally meaningless - lines drawn on a map by 16th century cartographers.

Perhaps we should instead govern ourselves at the provincial level with four or five provinces: Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Ulster, with perhaps a restored province of Meath. It would seem like a more efficient system to me, possibly involving more responsibility and higher governing standards, with the opportunity for gaining power greatly reduced for opportunistic gombeens whose only skills seem to be getting potholes fixed and accepting brown envelopes.

Dublin City could serve as the location for the Province Council of Leinster, with Cork City serving as the centre for the Province Council of Munster. Galway City could serve as the center for the Province Council of Connacht, and so on.

Many countries have county level and city level administration. Our versions are quite weak.

TP_CM

"And now over to Kerry, to get their reaction to this news."

mohawk

Davydave86 wrote: »

For a country with such a small population and land area, we have an excessive amount of administrative bodies, all governing 26 different counties. With the exception of sports, these counties are culturally meaningless - lines drawn on a map by 16th century cartographers.

Perhaps we should instead govern ourselves at the provincial level with four or five provinces: Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Ulster, with perhaps a restored province of Meath. It would seem like a more efficient system to me, possibly involving more responsibility and higher governing standards, with the opportunity for gaining power greatly reduced for opportunistic gombeens whose only skills seem to be getting potholes fixed and accepting brown envelopes.

Dublin City could serve as the location for the Province Council of Leinster, with Cork City serving as the centre for the Province Council of Munster. Galway City could serve as the center for the Province Council of Connacht, and so on.

You lost me at basing the administration of Munster over to Cork. Have you seen the state of the roads in Cork. Absolute disgrace to be honest. If they can’t fix potholes they can hardly be trusted with the rest of Munster.

blanch152

Replacing one ancient local system with another isn't a solution to the problems of local government.

New regions based around Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Sligo and Athlone/Mullingar offer a different and better way forward.