This Good Practice Seminar is organised by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) and the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), in partnership with the County and City Management Association (CCMA) and is an opportunity for local authorities to showcase examples of solutions-oriented approaches to providing better public services.
Local authorities in Ireland continuously strive to deliver excellent services to citizens. The local government sector’s ability to adapt to the evolving needs of citizens and policy priorities of national and local government, reflects the agility and commitment of the elected members and staff of City and County Councils throughout Ireland.
This Good Practice Seminar is organised by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) and the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), in partnership with the County and City Management Association (CCMA) and is an opportunity for local authorities to showcase examples of solutions-oriented approaches to providing better public services.
Local authorities in Ireland continuously strive to deliver excellent services to citizens. The local government sector’s ability to adapt to the evolving needs of citizens and policy priorities of national and local government, reflects the agility and commitment of the elected members and staff of City and County Councils throughout Ireland.
Good Practice in Local Government: Full Seminar
View the full seminar including contributions from the following:
Case Study Presentations
View individual presentations from the seminar below:
ISACs- Irish Local Authorities Sharing Cyber Information
Presentation by Ms. Ruth Buckley | Chief Information Officer
Cork City Council
The risk of a cyber event is one of the highest ranked corporate risks in the local government sector. The level of collaboration amongst all 31 Irish local authorities has always been high, particularly amongst the HIS group, the Heads of Information Systems.
An ISAC (Information sharing analysis centre) is a type of information sharing community, typically made up of organisations in the same sector such as water, transport, banking, etc. ENISA the EU cyber agency, has advocated the adoption of ISACs as part of the EU cyber shield proposed in the 2020 EU Cyber Strategy. This project with the support of the IVI Maynooth, the NCSC (National cyber security centre) and the LGMA (Local government management agency) is establishing the first Irish ISAC and the Irish local organisations are working to reach a level 1 maturity against the Dutch ISAC maturity model. The improved cyber situational awareness by the local government sector is already improving decision making at all levels of the sector and improving our understanding of the cyber incident life cycle.
CCTV - Data Protection and the Path to Innovation
Presentation by Mr Alan Dooley | Head of I.S. - Digital Strategy – EU Programmes
Limerick City and County Council
In 2022, Limerick City & County Council had to put together an urgent and critical response to findings issued by the Data Protection Commissioner on the use and governance of CCTV. At the core of this were the guidelines, principles and legislation associated with the processing of personal data via the medium of CCTV. The remediation efforts were successful, but the momentum gathered from the effort became a spring board for innovative solutions to standard work practices.
The Council is on a journey to bring modern technology solutions to the table to tackle the challenges of data and process governance on an enterprise scale. This takes significant strides towards the automation of repeatable work processes, with the potential to release workforce capacity and lock in good data privacy practices. Embracing the need to evolve how we work with personal data in a secure and automated way, is the driver for change.
Accelerating the use of drones for Local Government
Presentation by Ms Veronica Mariti Sosoke | Director of Services & Mr Jamie Cudden | Smart City Program Manager
Dublin City Council
The “Accelerating the Potential of Drones for Local Government” project was led by Dublin City Council and funded by DPER’s public sector innovation fund with the objective to better position Ireland in the application of drone technologies. The project delivered on a number of outcomes which included: training materials to upskill staff in drones regulation and compliance; toolkits to support data protection; international best practice reports and a national survey with over 900 respondents to better understand public sentiment for drone applications. Drone technology is evolving and growing with increased usage across public services. The technology has the potential to enhance and support operations in areas such as emergency response, surveying and mapping, planning and enforcement and traffic and environmental monitoring. As the drone market matures, so too do the opportunities to better utilise this technology to deliver safer, more efficient services.
Sustainable Energy Centre of Excellence
Presentation by Mr Brian Beck | Director of Service
Tipperary County Council
The Martyr’s Road Regeneration Quarter, a 10 ha. strategic site of brownfield lands and underutilised properties is located in the heart of Nenagh. This project, which was awarded funding by the DHLGH through the URDF, seeks to bring the vision for the town and site to fruition, through transformative place-making with the ambition to deliver a demonstrator regeneration urban quarter through the creation of an Iconic Building (SECOE Ireland) which will act as an exemplar of how we could live as a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Community.
The new Quarter will be delivered by applying the innovative integration of spatial and energy planning, harnessing renewable energy and passive building technologies, providing sustainable transport infrastructure and active public open spaces rich in biodiversity. It will support the Government’s targets for a cleaner, greener economy set out in the Climate Action Plan and the objective to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Build to Share
Presentation by Mr Stephen Brady | Director of Service Corporate Services Department
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown
The concept of ‘Build to Share’ (BtS) is a key pillar in national and sectoral ICT Strategies due to the potential benefits that can accrue when digital solutions are built once and can be easily shared with other public sector bodies. The potential benefits of this are obvious, including lower costs and the speedier deployment of systems.
Bearing in mind that all ICT solutions evolve and change as technology and requirements change, ‘sharing’ over the lifespan of a solution can be complex. The local government BtS project aims to establish an approach to the development of digital systems, ongoing governance structures and a means to showcase solutions so that LAs can adopt them if they wish. The goal is to publicise the 7 digital BtS systems that have already been developed, and to encourage the further development and sharing of new solutions.
Leitrim Connected
Presentation byMr Laurence Kennedy | Senior Staff Officer Corporate Services & Ms. Mary Quinn | Director of Service Housing, Corporate Services,
Leitrim County Council
‘Leitrim Connected’ is an app development project that unifies communications from Leitrim County Council, Fire and Emergency Services, An Garda Síochána, and community alert groups. The project will bring together Council communications relating to emergencies, infrastructure works, Council initiatives and Garda communications under one app-based system which will be free to the public.
The project envisages communicating key emergency and nonemergency information to the widest community possible across multiple channels (SMS, a dedicated messaging app and social media platforms) which will be of benefit to both the agencies operating the system and the citizens of Leitrim alike. Alerts can be targeted to citizens based on a number of criteria such as community area, distance from a location, a route corridor etc. This project was originally initiated by the Joint Policing Committee who identified the need for a cross agency communications platform to better inform and engage with the public.
Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis - Local Authority Response
Presentation by Ms Niamh McCarthy | National Coordinator Emergency Vacant Housing Delivery (Ukraine) unit
Since the 24th February 2022, the military assault on Ukraine by the Russian Federation has caused a humanitarian crisis of a scale no witnessed in Europe for more than 80 years, or since the Second World War. Over 8 million Ukrainians have been displaced with over 50,000 presenting in Ireland.
Local authorities have provided significant support to national government in responding to the accommodation and other needs of those arriving from Ukraine, and have been key to the provision of emergency centres, stepping up their community forum and ensuring that the vulnerable cohort are welcomed into our communities. Due to the scale of the crisis, local authorities have adopted innovative approaches to the delivery of services and supports. This presentation will focus on highlighting a range of these best practices across the sector.
ISACs- Irish Local Authorities Sharing Cyber Information
Presentation by Ms. Ruth Buckley | Chief Information Officer
Cork City Council
The risk of a cyber event is one of the highest ranked corporate risks in the local government sector. The level of collaboration amongst all 31 Irish local authorities has always been high, particularly amongst the HIS group, the Heads of Information Systems.
An ISAC (Information sharing analysis centre) is a type of information sharing community, typically made up of organisations in the same sector such as water, transport, banking, etc. ENISA the EU cyber agency, has advocated the adoption of ISACs as part of the EU cyber shield proposed in the 2020 EU Cyber Strategy. This project with the support of the IVI Maynooth, the NCSC (National cyber security centre) and the LGMA (Local government
management agency) is establishing the first Irish ISAC and the Irish local organisations are working to reach a level 1 maturity against the Dutch ISAC maturity model. The improved cyber situational awareness by the local government sector is already improving decision making at all levels of the sector and improving our understanding of the cyber incident life cycle.
CCTV - Data Protection and the Path to Innovation
Presentation by Mr Alan Dooley | Head of I.S. - Digital Strategy – EU Programmes
Limerick City and County Council
In 2022, Limerick City & County Council had to put together an urgent and critical response to findings issued by the Data Protection Commissioner on the use and governance of CCTV. At the core of this were the guidelines, principles and legislation associated with the processing of personal data via the medium of CCTV. The remediation efforts were successful, but the momentum gathered from the effort became a spring board for innovative solutions to standard work practices.
The Council is on a journey to bring modern technology solutions to the table to tackle the challenges of data and process governance on an enterprise scale. This takes significant strides towards the automation of repeatable work processes, with the potential to release workforce capacity and lock in good data privacy practices. Embracing the need to evolve how we work with personal data in a secure and automated way, is the driver for change.
Accelerating the use of drones for Local Government
Presentation by Ms Veronica Mariti Sosoke | Director of Services & Mr Jamie Cudden | Smart City Program Manager
Dublin City Council
The “Accelerating the Potential of Drones for Local Government” project was led by Dublin City Council and funded by DPER’s public sector innovation fund with the objective to better position Ireland in the application of drone technologies. The project delivered on a number of outcomes which included: training materials to upskill staff in drones regulation and compliance; toolkits to support data protection; international best practice reports and a national survey with over 900 respondents to better understand public sentiment for drone applications. Drone technology is evolving and growing with increased usage across public services. The technology has the potential to enhance and support operations in areas such as emergency response, surveying and mapping, planning and enforcement and traffic and environmental monitoring. As the drone market matures, so too do the opportunities to better utilise this technology to deliver safer, more efficient services.
Sustainable Energy Centre of Excellence
Presentation by Mr Brian Beck | Director of Service
Tipperary County Council
The Martyr’s Road Regeneration Quarter, a 10 ha. strategic site of brownfield lands and underutilised properties is located in the heart of Nenagh. This project, which was awarded funding by the DHLGH through the URDF, seeks to bring the vision for the town and site to fruition, through transformative place-making with the ambition to deliver a demonstrator regeneration urban quarter through the creation of an Iconic Building (SECOE Ireland) which will act as an exemplar of how we could live as a Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Community.
The new Quarter will be delivered by applying the innovative integration of spatial and energy planning, harnessing renewable energy and passive building technologies, providing sustainable transport infrastructure and active public open spaces rich in biodiversity. It will support the Government’s targets for a cleaner, greener economy set out in the Climate Action Plan and the objective to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Build to Share
Presentation by Mr Stephen Brady | Director of Service Corporate Services Department
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown
The concept of ‘Build to Share’ (BtS) is a key pillar in national and sectoral ICT Strategies due to the potential benefits that can accrue when digital solutions are built once and can be easily shared with other public sector bodies. The potential benefits of this are obvious, including lower costs and the speedier deployment of systems.
Bearing in mind that all ICT solutions evolve and change as technology and requirements change, ‘sharing’ over the lifespan of a solution can be complex. The local government BtS project aims to establish an approach to the development of digital systems, ongoing governance structures and a means to showcase solutions so that LAs can adopt them if they wish. The goal is to publicise the 7 digital BtS systems that have already been developed, and to encourage the further development and sharing of new solutions.
Leitrim Connected
Presentation byMr Laurence Kennedy | Senior Staff Officer Corporate Services & Ms. Mary Quinn | Director of Service Housing, Corporate Services,
Leitrim County Council
‘Leitrim Connected’ is an app development project that unifies communications from Leitrim County Council, Fire and Emergency Services, An Garda Síochána, and community alert groups. The project will bring together Council communications relating to emergencies, infrastructure works, Council initiatives and Garda communications under one app-based system which will be free to the public.
The project envisages communicating key emergency and nonemergency information to the widest community possible across multiple channels (SMS, a dedicated messaging app and social media platforms) which will be of benefit to both the agencies operating the system and the citizens of Leitrim alike. Alerts can be targeted to citizens based on a number of criteria such as community area, distance from a location, a route corridor etc. This project was originally initiated by the Joint Policing Committee who identified the need for a cross agency communications platform to better inform and engage with the public.
Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis - Local Authority Response
Presentation by Ms Niamh McCarthy | National Coordinator Emergency Vacant Housing Delivery (Ukraine) unit
Since the 24th February 2022, the military assault on Ukraine by the Russian Federation has caused a humanitarian crisis of a scale no witnessed in Europe for more than 80 years, or since the Second World War. Over 8 million Ukrainians have been displaced with over 50,000 presenting in Ireland.
Local authorities have provided significant support to national government in responding to the accommodation and other needs of those arriving from Ukraine, and have been key to the provision of emergency centres, stepping up their community forum and ensuring that the vulnerable cohort are welcomed into our communities. Due to the scale of the crisis, local authorities have adopted innovative approaches to the delivery of services and supports. This presentation will focus on highlighting a range of these best practices across the sector.