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

I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge his work in this area as well. I have had great engagement with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his office through this process and as the leaders were meeting to try to progress the heads of Bill through the Cabinet process. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, over in the Custom House has also been very helpful to me in going through this process so I acknowledge that.

There absolutely has to be a difference and the key one is obviously that the director general will focus on staffing. As already stated, his focus will be on delivering and administering schemes, dealing with applications for planning permission, enforcement matters, court orders and all staffing matters. Critically, the director general will also be the accounting officer for the local authority. Those are the key functions. That envelope will encapsulate the director general. All other functions will essentially transfer over to the democratically elected mayor. We are talking about putting together a programme for Limerick - like we do with a programme for Government over a five-year Dáil term - that will shape the future of the city and county over a five-year period. This will involve the presentation of a county development plan to the city and county council, how the county will be shaped through the planning process, which, as the Deputy knows, is the cornerstone of our development, linking that in with our national strategies and ensuring it is presented in a strong form in order to allow councillors to have a robust debate and adjudicate on it. Obviously, the presentation of a budget will be part of it as well. Again, all of these things are currently done by the chief executive. The newly elected mayor will present a budget to the local authority and, again, the members will have to adjudicate on it. The members will hold the directly elected mayor to account because his annual performance statement will be presented to them for adjudication.

It is very important to note that between rates, income-raising measures and all of that, the policy that shapes the county will be set out by mayor. There are huge powers involved. This is a major revision of local democracy, of that there is no doubt. I always imagine it this way: if one thinks of a director general, one is thinking of the key role of allocating a house to a vulnerable family, administering a grant for someone who has a disability or for an elderly person who needs better access or trying to approve funding for a rural town or village. Once the mayor sets out the parameters and the policy, it will be up to the director general to implement it . He will be the implementer of all those things and will adjudicate, under the parameters set by the mayor, which applicants will be successful, how an application for planning permission should go, etc. None of those matters should ever be the subject of political interference. That will be the director's role and he will fulfil it within the parameters of the guidelines set out to him by the mayor.