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

I absolutely appreciate the Deputy's ongoing role as we develop this process. First, on the question of where we are, we have our general scheme. As I said, I have been in close contact with the Office of the Attorney General trying to get priority in terms of a drafter. There should be a drafter available this month and we will keep in close contact with the office. However, the office did say - and this is always a risk - that there are a number of priority pieces of legislation, particularly in the housing space, that will be coming in and out. On the positive side, Dáil capacity has increased now that we are at three days a week and that will assist us. I would be hopeful that by the summer we will have a Bill ready. Obviously, it will then have to go through the legislative process in the Houses. I am very keen for the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which the Deputy chairs, to feed into that process as well to try to improve that piece of legislation.

The Deputy also referenced that the propositions for mayors in Waterford and Cork did not get through but in a way there is a silver lining to that insofar as it gives us time to really focus on Limerick and get a product that is going to stand the test of durability. We want people in other counties to look at it and say it is adding huge value to the citizens of Limerick, the city and the county and that it is absolutely the way to go with devolving more powers to their local authorities. The members obviously have a key role in holding the mayor to account in the context of the programme for Limerick the mayor, when he is elected, will have to put forward for adjudication by the local authority. Every year he will have to produce an annual performance statement which will have various key performance indicators the local authority can use to hold the mayor to account. In my statement I referenced the structure being accountable to all the reserved members of the local authority by means of questions which is very important to ensure they are being informed of progress on the various different aspects. On keeping up a good relationship, the mayor will have a right to be heard at municipal district level and be present at the local authority main plenary meetings. That is all so important. As I said, for the budget, a simple majority is one of the key indicators the implementation advisory group brought forward. It feels that should be the case to keep the good working relationships with County Limerick. The powers of local authority members are not changing; they have a big role now in holding the mayor to account, as do the people of Limerick. I do not want to devalue that in any way. It is going to be a huge opportunity for the citizens of Limerick to elect a democratically-elected executive head of the county and city so hopefully we can all embrace that. I thank Deputy Quinlivan for his questions.