Ms Mary Rose Burke:

I have a couple of observations, particularly around the mandate. We already have councillors with direct mandates from people who live within the local authorities, so there is significant representation there. In no way do we see a proposed directly-elected mayor replacing local authorities in the current functions. That is one of our questions. How would that mayoral office work? Would it have the means to match its mandate? How exactly would it use its powers of convening and consulting to also hold to account? We have long lobbied on the DART, the underground and the metro. There has not been sufficient heft of policy behind those to deliver them. They are still not delivered 30 or 40 years later. There are areas we can point to where there are deficits and there is some gap in leadership or governance that is allowing those deficits to arise. How does a directly-elected mayor work with the current structures? What does that accountability function look like?