Mr. Frank Curran:

I thank the Chair and members of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage for the invitation. I welcome the opportunity to address the committee as it considers the citizens' assembly report on a directly-elected mayor for Dublin.

By way of background, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is home to 18.6% of the population of Dublin, or just under 234,000 people. It covers an area of 126 sq. km stretching from UCD to the Wicklow border, bounded on the east by 17 km of coastline and on the west by the Dublin Mountains. The county's vibrant community is focused across a necklace of villages, each with its own strong identity, such as Dalkey, Foxrock, Monkstown, Rathfarnham, Shankill, Sandyford, Dundrum and Stepaside. Approximately 95,000 people are employed in the county, based mainly in the Sandyford business district and the larger towns of Dún Laoghaire, Stillorgan and Blackrock, with the council providing services ranging from homeless supports to libraries and from transport to road sweeping, all from an annual budget of €235 million. There is also a three-year capital works programme of in excess of €1 billion. The council employs more than 1,300 staff and provides in excess of 1,000 services to the public.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is made up of 40 councillors who are elected from six electoral areas. Each councillor serves a five-year term. Responsibility for delivering essential public services to the communities of the county rests jointly with councillors and the executive. As the policymakers, councillors exercise their authority through reserved functions. These functions include adoption of the county development plan, the corporate plan and the annual budget, including the setting of the commercial rate, and the varying of the local property tax. The executive makes the daily operational decisions having regard to the policies adopted by the councillors. Such decisions include planning decisions, budgetary control and housing allocations. The executive also performs the regulatory functions in the best interests of the county.

Councillors are assisted in their policymaking role by the corporate policy group, CPG, which consists of the cathaoirleach and the chairs of the strategic policy committees, SPCs. The CPG provides the forum to support the elected members and the SPCs to put forward policy that impacts on the entire council for discussion and agreement before bringing it to the full council. The SPCs develop, review and monitor policy implementation. Membership of an SPC may consist of councillors and representatives of sectoral interests, such as the business community, the environment and trade unions. There are six SPCs in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council: housing; economic development and enterprise; community, culture and well-being; planning and citizen engagement; environment and climate action; and transport and marine.

The goals and objectives of the council are set out in our corporate plan. There are eight priority areas, namely, to show leadership in protecting our environment through education and in how we work; to facilitate the development of a variety of housing options enabling improved choice that drives quality for all; to enhance people's lives through access to sustainable travel choices across our network of communities; to provide quality community, recreation, sporting and cultural opportunities for all who live, work and visit the county; to enhance the vitality of our towns and villages while preserving our natural and built heritage; to engage with businesses to support their presence and growth in the county; to promote equality and human rights by implementing the public sector equality and human rights duty; and to optimise human, financial and physical resources to deliver accessible customer-focused quality services.

Among our current priories, housing delivery is a big one. Housing commencements in Dún Laoghaire have exceeded those in all other local authorities in the State in three of the past four quarters, and we are in line to exceed our social housing delivery targets in 2023 and 2024.

One example of a scheme is in Shanganagh, with 600 mixed-tenure units, which we are doing in partnership with the Land Development Agency. We also have the Cherrywood strategic development zone, which is possibly the largest public infrastructure scheme in the country, currently under construction. It is projected to have a population of 25,000 residents, more than 8,000 homes, a retail-led town centre, six new schools, three major parks and three Luas stops.

Climate action is a priority for us. Along with the other Dublin local authorities, we recently launched our draft climate action plan. We have done significant work on active travel. We are spending over €30 million per year on active travel schemes. We are energy retrofitting all our buildings and council housing stock. Over 85% of our lights are LED lights. We are replacing our council fleet with an electric fleet, and so on. There is much work on community engagement.

Sandyford business district is an area that we spent much time on. We work closely with Sandyford business improvement district, which now has 26,000 employees, 5,000 residents, 1,000 companies, 13 Fortune 500 Companies, and generates €21.6 million in commercial rates and a €1 billion gross wage bill.

There is significant infrastructure, including roads, which will open up new areas for housing, parks, libraries, playing pitches, swimming pools, and so on.

Regarding the citizens' assembly report, it is essential that this work programme continues and is enhanced. It cannot really stop. We welcome the recommendations that the four local authorities will be retained. We need clarity about the budgets and policymaking regarding the areas of responsibility for the new mayor. It needs to be clear what remains with central government Departments and what is devolved to the mayor. On a daily basis, we deal with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, needless to say, but we also deal with the Departments of the Environment, Climate and Communications; Transport, Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; and, over the last year with the Ukrainian crisis and international protection issues, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. We also deal with the National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency, Uisce Éireann and Fáilte Ireland. We deal with 29 agencies and Departments daily. The budgets and policy areas that remain once responsibility is transferred are critical.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is now a distinct county in its own right. It has had a county council for 30 years and it is built around that network of villages. It is important that its identity is retained in any new arrangements. I also recommend that councillors be full-time, particularly in the new structures. As the other speakers have said, the wording of the plebiscite needs to be clear and unambiguous. Citizens need to be fully informed of the extent of the new arrangements and the impact they will have on service delivery at a local level.