Ms Dee Ryan:

I thank the Senator for the question. If I were to point to one measure I would like the directly elected mayor to have the ability to control, it would be in the area of transport, which is important across the city and county. That could make a considerable difference to the lives of citizens, encourage greater and healthier habits through the provision of cycle lanes and better walking and cycling infrastructure. We currently have a low uptake of public transport in Limerick so it would be fantastic if the mayor had the ability to determine and make changes to routes and be agile on locally based decisions. The caveat is that transport needs to be properly funded by central government.

On revenue raising, the Indecon report we published two weeks ago called for an overall review of local authority funding. We are calling for that because a tension is becoming apparent between how local authorities are currently funded through rates and car parking revenue, to a certain extent, and the changes that need to happen in converting properties that are currently in commercial use or that were previously rated commercially and are now in disuse. Those properties need to be converted into productive homes for people. To do that, there must be a desire to make urban centres more liveable and take out much of the on-street parking that is an important revenue stream for local authorities. There is greater work to be done in that regard.