Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our guests for being here with us today. There is a thriving business community in Dublin and we are lucky to have that. I was an employee in Fingal, a councillor in South Dublin County Council and now I am a Deputy for Dublin so I have had the pleasure of working closely with Fingal Chamber of Commerce, South Dublin Chamber of Commerce and Dublin Chamber of Commerce and I look forward to working with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Chamber of Commerce. I see the fantastic work that each chamber of commerce does for their members day in and day out in terms of all of the different business organisations that are rooted in Dublin. That is what makes our chambers of commerce and business community such an important stakeholder in this debate around the directly-elected mayor for Dublin.

Interestingly, Fingal Chamber of Commerce has taken a very neutral stance on this matter and has said so. I would be interested to see if South Dublin Chamber of Commerce is in a position to plump for either side of this and the same for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Chamber of Commerce. At the annual awards ceremony of Dublin Chamber of Commerce, this issue was really spoken about and the excitement around it was palpable. I am really excited to see if we can reach a situation where we have a directly-elected mayor for Dublin but like all of our guests here I want to make sure that it happens right.

The citizens' assembly report was wide-reaching and broad, visionary and aspirational. The report needs to be backed up by a legal framework that is rooted in practicality.

Many questions have been raised here today. They included cost, complications, bureaucracy, populism, inclusivity from a countywide perspective, possible disconnection between local communities and a broader hierarchical mayoral structure. Issues this committee has discussed in the last couple of meetings have included the budget, revenue-raising capacity, which is an issue that was mentioned here today, the impact on staffing and Mr. Geissel expressed an interesting perspective, which is the defragmentation of Dublin City Council into different counties and now doing it in reverse this way, the impact on local councillors, which was mentioned in the report, and making Dublin councillors full-time. There is a total disparity because we are not talking about making any councillors outside of Dublin full-time. Lastly, there are the functions and the wide berth of functions. I am concerned that the report does not contain detailed directions, which, in fairness, the citizens' assembly was not asked for, but that is why we are so keen to hear from stakeholders and the people impacted.

In many ways the idea of a Dublin mayor is still an abstract concept, so we need to define the role and I would welcome the views and ideas of our guests on doing so. Representatives of the National Transport Authority, and the chief executives of the four local authorities, have appeared before the committee and everybody has had the opportunity to put their perspectives on the record of the Houses but has found that difficult because we are still talking about an abstract concept. I would appreciate if our guests could give us any help or guidance on the matter.

I still feel that I am operating in a vacuum on this matter. I do not think that we, as a committee, are done with our deliberations. Therefore, I believe it would be really useful for us to hear from the Electoral Commission or the chair of the citizens' assembly about this matter. We also need to invite representatives of the relevant Department in here so we can hear how this could work in practical terms in terms of local government. The committee has a busy work schedule but we need to examine this matter ourselves and I now hand over to the PPNs and the various chambers of commerce.