Local Government

The responsibility for budget management and control is being cascaded down to individual Departments and Centres within Irish Local Government.  This creates a need for those with the responsibility for these areas and Elected Members to understand the financial processes, reports and documents that they are being asked to comment upon.

This half day Budget Management and Control for Local Government course is designed to provide the support needed by detailing the system of preparing budgets, the process by which actual expenditure is calculated and the control system used whereby actual and budgetary figures are compared to produce ‘variances’.  The process of analysing variances, for the purpose of explaining under or over spending is a key aspect of this course, in the same way that is the main means of effecting budgetary control in Local Government.

Understanding Local Government Finance is a specialist-led online one-day course that is designed to provide participants with a basic understanding of how an Irish Local Authority sources their income to fund day to day expenditure and capital expenditure. The course will also provide participants with an appreciation of how the budget process works in a Local Authority and an understanding of the Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet of a Local Authority. Finally, the course will examine the role of internal and external audit in a local government context.

A new Code of Practice for Employers and Employees on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work, written by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), has been in place since December 2020 (S.I. 674 of 2020, Industrial Relations Act 1990). 

The Local Authority Sector, through the work of the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), has revised their Dignity at Work Policy to incorporate the changes required to implement the new Code of Practice.      

The aim of this workshop: The Role of the Secondary Resolution Process in the Local Authority Sector,  is to focus specifically on the new informal resolution process of the Dignity at Work process, namely the ‘Secondary Resolution Process’ and how this should be undertaken on behalf of the Local Authority and what the expected outcome should be.  

Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) Training looks at the role, purpose and policy/strategic nature of Strategic Policy Committees as set out in the Local Government Reform Act 2014.  It is available for delivery as a bespoke course for Irish Local Authorities.

This programme is aimed at developing within individuals the capacity to understand and change organisational systems and to understand and change oneself.

A key objective is to build capacity in individuals to operate outside of their functional responsibilities and to broaden their understanding of organisational and system issues, enhancing their ability to operate at a strategic level. The programme therefore challenges individuals to move beyond their current functional roles and behaviour; to open up to approaches when working with others to achieve goals and to generate more efficient and innovative outcomes.

The 2022 Housing Practitioners' Conference was held at the Grand Hotel Malahide on Thursday, 26 May and a half day on Friday, 27 May 2022 as an in-person event.  The Conference was organised as a joint-initiative between the Institute of Public Administration and The Housing Agency.

The conference was organised under the umbrella of Housing for All: Supply, Sustainability and Capacity.

Conference Programme is available here. (PDF)