Dr. Eoin O'Malley:

I will make the opening statement. I am thankful for this opportunity to address the committee on the general scheme of the Bill. Most of what is in the Bill we regard as pretty uncontroversial and I do not intend to go through it. It is merely modelled on Electoral Acts and deals with those matters in a sensible way.

There are three main points we would like to make. First, we welcome the introduction of an executive mayor for Limerick. There are three issues we think should be addressed and we are not sure whether it is too late to address them now. We know it is too late to address one of them but we think they should be considered. One issue is the geographic coverage of the model of city governance that is being discussed. That will lead to issues the committee can deal with in pre-legislative scrutiny, which is the power of the mayor. First, there is the physical area the mayor represents. The county system is not natural or rational and attaching a mayor to it probably makes little sense. The interests of the people of Limerick city probably have not that much in common with people in the west of the county in places such as Abbeyfeale whereas I know, because I am from Limerick and lived within 200 m of County Clare, that most people who live in various parts of County Clare would regard themselves as being Limerick city. The fact that it does not entail control or a say in Limerick city will make it difficult for a mayor of Limerick to do what he or she would normally want to do.

The second question relates to the type of system that is optimal and we question whether a directly elected system is optimal, albeit that is a decision that has been made. There are three types of models of city governance. One is the council-manager system Ireland currently has where the mayor has no executive powers. There is an assumption it is a bad thing. It certainly is not democratic. There is not a strong link between voters' wishes and outcomes we would normally want but it is a form that is used in many places that have strong local government such as Norway and Finland where there is strong local government with a council-manager system, albeit not one with quite the power a chief executive has in Ireland. The problem with our current system might not be how power is exercised locally but how little power is exercised locally, which could be an issue.

The second model is the directly elected mayor or mayor-council system. It is used in many cities such as London, Rome and approximately half of the large US cities, including New York and Chicago. Because our nearest neighbour and influencers have used it, we naturally assume it is something we would use. Within that system things are not uniform. They can be strongly mayoral or weakly mayoral. A strong mayor might be strongly mayoral in some areas. For instance, the London mayor has strong control of housing and transport policy, but less or no control of education, leisure and waste. The Bill would not necessarily transfer any powers to the local authority in Limerick so it will still be a weak form of local government handed over to a mayor. It will not necessarily make local government in Limerick stronger because local government is still going to be weak in Ireland.

The system of a directly elected mayor is not how we are used to doing politics in Ireland. The Taoiseach is indirectly elected by voters in the Dáil and nobody complains that is not a powerful office. They way we elect a Taoiseach is more analogous to a third model of local government, which is the council-elected mayor. Like the Dáil chooses a Taoiseach on the basis of forming a majority in Parliament, elected councillors would appoint a executive mayor who has a majority in the council chamber. That has advantages over direct election. Removal from office is a political function and not a legal one. In this Bill, we suspect, the mechanism to remove a directly elected mayor could be easily be challenged in the courts and could cause problems that may make it almost impossible to use or activate.

The system of the election of a mayor by a council encourages compromise and prevents deadlock, whereas there is the possibility under this system of a mayor from one or no party with a council majority that is not available to that mayor. As with council elected mayors, powers can vary quite significantly. This system is quite common and is used in many north European cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm and Paris. In France, even though it is not a directly elected office, it is regarded as very strong and is sometimes likened to a kind of local monarch or barony.

The issue of power is a point that we believe the committee should consider carefully. Under the proposed scheme there will be three potentially powerful political actors in local government. One is the directly elected mayor in Limerick, and the others are the director general, which is the renamed chief executive or city manager, and the príomh comhairleoir, or first councillor, who will be like a speaker or cathaoirleach in the council chamber.

A directly elected mayor will be allowed to run for two terms of five years, although the first mayor will probably only get one and a half terms, which may be something the committee will want to consider. The first councillor can be re-elected on an annual basis, and there does not seem to be any term limit. The director general's term will copy that of the chief executive, that is, seven plus three years.