Donegal County Council has approved its Service Delivery Plan for the coming year, identifying the services that it proposes to deliver to the people of the county in the year ahead.
Officials say the plan has been prepared based on the provisions of the adopted budget of just over €175.5 million.
Presenting the document to members, officials said the Service Delivery Plan is underpinned by the five Strategic Objectives as set out in the Corporate Plan ; Driving growth, delivering services, empowering communities, moving to low carbon climate resilience and building the council’s own organisational capacity.
Members raised a number of issues, which are to be referred to the relevant Strategic Policy Committees. They included the need for more burial places in Donegal, particularly non-denominational public cemeteries.
The need for improvements to the Fire Service was also highlighted, particularly in terms of the provision of water tankers and services on offshore islands, particularly Tory.
Tourism was also discussed, with a particular emphasis on the lack of promotion in East Donegal, and the need for a tourist development programme for the Lifford Stranorlar Municipal District.
The relevant directors of service have pledged to take all the issues raised on board, with members saying they’ll be watching to ensure commitments are followed through.
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Introduction in full –
This Service Delivery Plan is prepared in accordance with Section 134(A) of the Local
Government Act 2001 (as inserted by section 50 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014)
which established the requirement for each local authority to prepare an Annual Service
Delivery Plan, identifying the services that it proposes to deliver to the public in the year
ahead. The purpose of this Service Delivery Plan is to provide a corporate document that
highlights the services that Donegal County Council will provide in 2023.
The Annual Service Delivery Plan has been prepared based on the provisions of the adopted
budget of €175,555,907 for 2023, and it also takes into account the strategic objectives as set
out in Donegal County Council’s Corporate Plan 2020-2024, which serves as the strategic
framework during the lifetime of the Council. There will also be a clear link between the
Annual Service Delivery Plan and the Multi Annual Capital Budget for the organisation.
The Annual Service Delivery plan is underpinned by the five Strategic Objectives as set out in
the Corporate Plan:
1. Driving Growth: To drive population growth by promoting economic development and
job creation and by enhancing the excellent quality of life offering across Donegal.
2. Delivering Services: To deliver accessible, efficient, and good value services and supports.
3. Empowering our Communities: To empower, support, and promote sustainable,
inclusive and prosperous communities.
4. Moving to Low Carbon Climate Resilience: To lead the transition to a low carbon climate
resilient community in Donegal.
5. Building Organisational Capacity: To support and develop our organisational capacity to
achieve our objectives.
Appendix A of this Annual Service Delivery Plan sets out the Corporate Plan Strategic
Framework including the Supporting Strategies.
The Local Government Reform Act requires the Local Authority Annual Service Delivery Plans
to include:
a statement of their principal services
the objectives and priorities for their delivery
the performance standards intended to be met
the respective performance indicators the local authority proposes to assess its
performance.
Donegal County Council’s Corporate Plan 2020-2024 states that the Annual Service Delivery
Plan will be translated in Divisional Business Plans and team and individual work programmes
through the Performance Management Development System (PMDS). This process will link
the strategic objectives and supporting strategies to the Business and Team plans for each
service and to the Personal Development Plan for individual members of staff. This will ensure
that each individual member of staff will clearly see how their work is contributing to the
overall strategic objectives of Donegal County Council.
This Annual Service Delivery Plan will provide a tool to monitor the performance of Donegal
County Council in the implementation of our Corporate Plan. Performance Indicators for the
local government sector have being developed and will continue to evolve over time.
Section 2 of this plan sets out the principal services provided by Donegal County Council under
each Directorate and Division, followed by specific delivery plans for each of the services in
Section 3.
The adoption of the Annual Service Delivery Plan is a Reserved Function of the Local Authority
and the recommendation to review and consider this Plan by the Corporate Policy Group
(CPG) in this first instance is outlined in Section 4. Once approved by CPG, the Annual Service
Delivery Plan 2023 will be presented to the plenary Council for adoption.
