AH, YOUR LOCAL council – the library card in your pocket, the playground in your park, the lollipop at your school. Is there anything they can’t do?

Well, according to the government’s new housing plan, local authorities have one very important part to play: the scapegoat.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin recently lashed out at councils using their powers to decide which land should be for amenities and which land will be for housing.

The government’s new housing plan released last week is sadly more of the same: shifting blame onto local communities and local councils while pouring money into a broken system and rewarding land speculation.

Minister for Housing James Browne wants to create a league table of councils to hold us to account. This is a good thing. But he should take his finger off the scales.

The biggest barrier holding back local authorities from delivering homes is central government. They need to realise that councils are much better-placed than central government to build communities, and in fact should have even greater involvement in delivering enabling infrastructure like schools, public transport and GP clinics.

However, currently we rank 43rd out of 46 in Europe for the autonomy that central government gives to local councils. Councils are a very easy target when they have almost no power to act.

Housing policy is complicated but there’s really two aspects that are important when we think about what role councils have in it: rules and funding.

Funding to build housing, renovate social houses or buy homes comes from central government; similarly, the rules and laws that overarch our planning system are handed down from the minister.

Councils do their best to play by the rules and........

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