Abstract
Another year, another minister, another renaming of the department! Changes to the cabinet in June 2017 included the appointment of Eoghan Murphy, TD, as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, and John Paul Phelan, TD, as Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government with Special Responsibility for Local Government and Electoral Reform. Further functional realignment also took place: community functions were transferred to the newly created Department of Rural and Community Development and, at the end of 2017, responsibility for motor taxation was transferred to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Thus, the centralisation of functions traditionally associated with local government continues.