Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
Consideration of the Citizens' Assembly Report on a Directly Elected Mayor of Dublin: Discussion (Resumed)
Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source
That provides a nice segue into what I will ask about but I have a few initial points to make. One of the things that jumps out from the report of the Dublin citizens' assembly is that it recommends a wide-ranging area of powers that should be devolved to the mayor. Transport is one of those areas that hits home because it affects and impacts people's everyday lives. There is a real sense within Dublin that we do not have an effective transport system and it is a problem for people who are trying to plan what routes they have and will take. They cannot guarantee that they will be in X place at a given time. The idea with BusConnects is that it will change things up but we have probably all noticed that the bus system has nearly ground to halt in terms of buses going missing. Having to wait a long time and buses falling off the real time information is a frustration that people have and they want somebody to be accountable for it.
I refer to what a directly elected mayor would be. With Transport for London, for example, the mayor is in charge of the strategic vision.
He not only sits on the board but chairs it. He is not responsible for the day-to-day operation but he is responsible for the strategic vision of it, in a similar manner to Ms Graham. In Manchester now we see the mayor is able to tender for the privatised bus service. He has pulled people together and tendered for the bus service. Manchester now has a new public bus service. It is important for local authorities, public and elected officials to take back control. From Ms Graham's experience of dealing with other transport chiefs throughout Europe, which she no doubt must do, what would she consider to be best practice in how city transport infrastructure operates? Will she give a couple of examples of what she believes is best practice and the difficulties they have, on which we could potentially base how a mayor would deal with strategic transport infrastructure in Dublin?
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