Reports highlights key areas for Tipperary administrators to work on

Tipperary Local Authority ‘Performance Indicators Report’ was presented at this month’s Tipperary Council meeting held in Clonmel.

Ger Walshe, who spoke on the day, said that it was the 9th annual report by NOAC and performance was measured across 44 indicators in 11 areas which were measured by certain methods to improve efficiency across Ireland and provide better services ultimately for the public.

NOAC stands for the National Oversight and Audit Commission and it was established under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 to provide independent oversight of the local government sector (local authorities and associated bodies), including Regional Assemblies.

In the recent results Tipperary’s average scorecard was 15th out of 31 overall and it improved its ranking position by 5 or more positions across 14 indicators. The Council representative showed overall that Tipperary was, as he put it, “going in the right direction”.

Recent years were impacted by “the Ukrainian crisis together with the global increase of the costs of goods and services and that has had an impact on Local Authorities,” he said.

The report informs the Council of what is working and what is not, across a broad range of services to ensure that the public is provided for.

“There were two additional indicators added in 2022 in relation to Climate Change and Economic Development,” he said.
Key new challenges emerged in recent years in Tipperary regarding the retention of staff and an aging workforce.

Many young people have moved abroad and the type of work undertaken by many has changed. Overall the statistics showed that Tipperary “has improved its performance over the past 5 years” in some areas.

For example the level of housing vacancy reduced from a high of 4.6 in 2019 to 1.76 in 2022. Another interesting change was that the “Percentage of Motor Tax transactions conducted online increased by 36%”.

Commenting on the figures, Chief Executive Joe McGrath said that “We are performing very, very well in most areas. Obviously there are a few areas we can improve on.

“What we do internally here is we identify those areas and they become part of the personal and team development plans of senior staff.”

He concluded by saying that “we are doing the best that we can possibly do for the communities of the county.”
Time is needed to identify areas for improvement. Details relating to the NOAC reports can be found at https://www.noac.ie/.