Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will start by thanking the Minister of State and the officials for the ongoing briefings they are giving us and the meetings we have been able to attend. I put on record my thanks to the people of Limerick who voted for a directly-elected mayor in 2019. Unfortunately people in Waterford and Cork did not do that so we have in Limerick an opportunity to get this right not just for Limerick but also so other local authorities will see the benefit of having a directly-elected mayor. That is really important.

In the short time I have available, I have a couple of questions for the Minister of State. He presented the heads of the Bill there but how close are we to having a final sign-off on the Bill itself? Does he have a timeframe he could outline to us of where he is hoping to get to with that? I have a few questions prompted by his contribution as well. He said it is important to stress the directly-elected mayor will be accountable to the council as well as the to the people of Limerick. What did he mean by that exactly? He might clarify that a bit more. He also mentioned the setting up of a board to support rural County Limerick, which is critically important. It is really important the people of Limerick, city and county, are taken into consideration. There is a sense in many of the rural areas that they were left behind when the amalgamation happened in 2014. I strongly recommend and support that proposal for a rural board or whatever the Minister of State is talking about putting in there. I welcome his comments earlier that he envisages a public campaign being put on prior to the election of the mayor because it is critically important. As we said, although the majority in favour of the proposal totalled over 3,400, the number was still quite narrow in the scheme of things. As I said, my colleagues Deputies Mitchell and Ó Broin have been very constructive on this. We believe it is a huge opportunity not just for Limerick but that we should let Limerick be the beacon and lead the rest of us.

To get back to my questions, how close are we to getting the full Bill and what timeline does the Minister of State envisage?