A checklist of local councillors’ powers (and lack thereof) by Bock The Robber

Not much apparently.

A law-and-order councillor is a useless councillor since they have no role in that area. A pro-farmer councillor is a waste of space, since agriculture is not one of the prescribed areas for which local authorities have responsibility. A councillor who has a position on Irish policy abroad is a bullshitter who needs to be shown the door. A councillor who claims to be pro-sport is a chancer. A councillor who promises to work for better healthcare is a liar. A councillor who wants to shorten the dole queues needs to be sacked. A councillor who tells you he’s working for education or the local economy is just looking for a free junket to China.

Councillors have no role in any of these things, or for that matter in food safety, immigration, mortgage resolution, curbing prostitution, teenage drunkenness or tv licences. This is a classic example, from a character running for Galway County Council.

Let me repeat: they’re responsible for policy-making on a very narrow range of issues and individually they have no power at all.