Ms AnnMarie Farrelly:

The Deputy's point is well made about how the power transfers. The recommendation is very clear about the powers to be devolved to the directly elected mayor and the local government structures. That includes areas such as healthcare, community and primary education. To have the power, the mayor's office needs to have the staffing and financial resources associated with those new powers. Currently, they do not rest with local government. Whereas a directly elected mayor might speak on them, he or she can do nothing about it if he or she does not have the power with it. It is a tall order to say that education could transfer to a directly elected Dublin mayor. How that would actually work would need much consideration. I already made the point about scale. If it were to transfer, we would be moving to a completely different environment from the structure we have at present which is already of significant scale. For example, Fingal is similar in size to Limerick city and county on its own. If those new areas of responsibility are added to that, it will require an operation of significant scale.