Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses. I am particularly struck by Mr. Ward's contribution that, in some ways, they are speculating on what might happen in future. We want to try to get insight from the representatives in the context of their current roles, but we appreciate there is a degree of speculation as to what might come.

I remind members that this is not an opportunity for them to reprise their best performances at area committee meetings. We will try to focus as much as we can on the issue of a directly elected mayor. That is the reason the witnesses are with us. I will try to restrict the conversation to that and will not allow us to stray too much into any other area, such as housing delivery and so on. We have plenty of opportunities to ask the witnesses those questions.