Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to correct what was said earlier by stating that Deputy Quinlivan and I are the two representatives from Limerick.

I am not in favour a directly elected mayor. I previously served as a county councillor and many of the issues I had at the time related to the fact that powers were being taken away from councillors. The Minister of State indicated that the council will retain its existing powers. The councillors of Limerick were directly elected by the people of Limerick. They need to get back the powers they had previously and they must be given further powers.

We are talking about €135,000 for the salary of the directly elected mayor, approximately €330,000 for the office staff of the mayor and between €30,000 and €35,000 for the mayor's driver. That amounts to an overall cost of roughly €500,000 for a directly elected mayor. I presume that the cost for a príomh comhairleoir will remain the same and that the overall amount will still be € 500,000. From the documentation that is available at the moment, I understand the Department will cover the cost relating to the mayor until the next local election and that it will then become part of the local authority's annual budget.

The other issue I have is that if something happens to the mayor, none of the relevant functions or powers can be transferred to either the príomh comhairleoir or the chief executive, who will in future be known as the director general. I ask the Minister of State to come back to me on those points.