Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's comments and his support for the scheme. I look forward to working with him in delivering it.

On Dublin, following its decision on gender equality, the Citizens' Assembly is now taking a look at the four local authority areas of Dublin. This will be a significant body of work. The Department of the Taoiseach is leading on this. We will feed into the process through our Department. With the four local authorities, the national planning framework reaches out much further in the context of the metropolitan area. It is a huge and ambitious decision. We really value the work of the assembly. It has stood us in good stead in other approaches to issues that were outstanding, especially in a social context. We look forward to the assembly's report and to working with this committee in how we go forward from that. This will be very important.

As the Deputy has rightly stated, the people of Limerick voted in favour by a narrow margin. I am aware that Tim O'Connor and the implementation advisory group engaged in a great deal of discussion on the matter. When Covid struck, the group went to incredible lengths to carry out its consultation process online. There were more than 1,000 respondents. They had really strong engagement from the people of Limerick, on foot of which a number of recommendations were made. Public information is key. There were a number of elections on the day the plebiscite was held. From talking with people in Limerick, the view expressed to me was that it received very little attention. There was a meeting with the Limerick Oireachtas Members in the Custom House. I was feeding into that process in the context of advising about the narrow margin and what people were feeling. It is very important that before elections we have public information campaigns. Such a campaign could have been used to advise the people of Limerick of the gravity the question relating to a directly elected mayor. This individual will have to demonstrate his or her capacity to the electorate to manage a complex set of relationships in the context of the director general, the reserved functions of the council and the whole of Limerick city and county. It will be a unique undertaking. We will need a strong public information campaign. In response to the Deputy's query, I would say that information is key. With three plebiscites, including those Cork and Waterford, held on the same day, that was one of the key challenges. So many elections were on at the time. As a former councillor, the Deputy will be aware that local authority election campaigns tend to be frantic. European Union elections held on the same day as the local elections and the plebiscites in this instance, so there was too much information to absorb. We really must work on that.