Ms Karen Feeney:

On full-time councillors, the struggles of recruitment and retention within the councillor end of local government have been well aired before this committee on numerous occasions. I am very supportive of the idea of office of the directly elected mayor but it cannot just sit on top of what we have. We have to look at everything that goes around it and there will have to be changes to the broader system. Looking at how that works, the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities has a draft report on the Irish system. I note the Leas-Chathaoirleach fed into that and met them when they were here, and I met them on behalf of the regional assemblies. There are some good recommendations in that report about strengthening Ireland’s local and regional government system. When looking at the directly elected mayor and how that will ripple out on the broader local government system and regional assembly system, the report and its recommendations should be looked at.

I would be very hesitant to create two tiers of councillors. I have always been a proponent of councillors being full time, but that is a decision for members.