merrion street

My thanks to the speakers from all sides who’ve participated in this debate. It’s been a very constructive and engaging debate on an important issue that has the potential to radically redesign local government arrangements in Dublin. I’d like to emphasise at the outset that, while the Government is not opposing the Bill at second stage and has put forward an appropriate amendment, due to the complexities of the issue there will need to be careful consideration of the Bill following this debate.

The Programme for a Partnership Government includes a commitment to consider directly elected mayors as part of wider potential local government reform measures, including greater devolution, revised local electoral areas, municipal governance and town councils.

The Programme states that, having consulted widely with all relevant stakeholders, a report for Government, and for the Oireachtas, will be prepared by mid-2017 on such measures.

Work in relation to the development of proposals to address the range of issues in the Programme is already being undertaken in the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, with the aim of building on the progress made under the major reform programme launched by the previous Government in 2012. This will identify the matters to be addressed in the report to be submitted in mid-2017. Decisions will be a matter for the Government and the Oireachtas, as appropriate, following consideration of the report.

On the issue before the House tonight, there are important arguments put forward for creating the office of a directly elected mayor in Dublin. However, before reaching a conclusion on this, there are significant issues that must be addressed.
First and foremost, it will be necessary to decide on a range of substantive, statutory functions that might be assigned to a directly elected mayor for Dublin. What will the directly elected mayor be in charge of; what budgetary powers will the Mayor have; what geographical area will the office cover ?; and how will these functions impact on other public bodies at central and local levels ?

It may well be right to make significant changes in governance for the benefit of the Dublin area but we need to be very clear on what we are doing and why. There’s no point in creating an office with a weak, or duplicating, mandate that would make the ultimate goal here of delivering better services for the citizen harder, not easier, to achieve.

All aspects of the governance of the Dublin metropolitan area will need to be taken into account, including questions around an overall regional authority; relationship with the wider Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly; impacts on the 4 existing Dublin authorities and neighbouring counties; and local area governance in the villages around the city and counties of Dublin.

In addition, any proposal for a directly elected mayor must have full regard to cost implications and staffing issues; people will be needed both to support the performance of the statutory functions assigned to the Mayor and to support the operation of the Mayor's office.

I accept the sincerity with which Fianna Fáil, and Deputy Lahart in particular, have tabled this Bill and this augurs well for our future work in this area. As stated before, the Government is open to considering any workable proposals. I hope to see Deputies and Senators from all sides being open-minded in their deliberations and that we can achieve a broad consensus on this matter before it is put to the electorate for decision as a fully developed proposal.

The establishment of a directly elected mayor would have major implications for the future of local and regional government arrangements for the Dublin Metropolitan Area. It may also have major implications for future policy development in key policy areas such as housing, transport, tourism, heritage and enterprise that will affect the Greater Dublin Area and beyond.

The planned consideration of this issue and associated consultation processes will likely involve all people and organisations with responsibilities in these areas in order to seek to identify substantive functions that may be performed by a directly elected Mayor, to clarify the geographical scope of the role and to provide sufficient supporting justification for the creation of the office and the costs that will be involved.

Dublin is both a living city with a fast growing population, whose needs must be met to ensure quality of life of its citizens, and an internationally competitive business hub that drives our economy. All of us here share a collective responsibility to ensure that any proposal to be put forward for decision by the electorate will best facilitate the social and economic development of Dublin and that this will, in turn, benefit the country as a whole. The establishment of a directly elected mayor must have shared benefits that improve regional cohesion.

I will approach this issue on the basis of benefits that have been identified – in terms of substantive functions to be performed by a Mayor that improve public services for people living in and visiting the Dublin Metropolitan Area – and whether these benefits outweigh the costs that will be involved. We look forward to the future work in this area.

Conclusion
To conclude, we on the Government side remain of the view that a directly elected mayor for Dublin requires careful consideration to guard against unintended consequences. I want to thank Deputy Lahart again for his very valuable work in this area. It is clear that the Deputy wants to achieve the right outcome for the people of Dublin and I look forward to working with him to achieve that.

The amendment we are putting forward will allow for the commitment in the Programme for Government to consider directly elected mayors in cities to be implemented by mid- 2017 and provide the appropriate context for advancing to consideration of legislation on this matter.

I and my Government colleagues accept that there could potentially be real benefits to be derived from the establishment of a directly elected mayor and this merits further, serious consideration of the issue.

Go raibh mile maith agaibh.