Ms Mary Rose Burke:

I think we all share similar concerns. When we look to other places that have directly-elected mayors there is no one example of a city that is so disproportionate in its importance to the country. It is that balance of capital cities and the State which must be taken into account. There is not a model that we can pick and lift from any other country that is applicable to Dublin, which is a challenge.

If there was a rush to hold a referendum we would caution that either there would be a narrowing of the geography or a reduction of powers. None of us here have a proposed solution because it is a complex problem. I think there is a need for continued dialogue and a straw man to be proposed in order that people would have something to challenge rather than the seductive one person elected that will solve all our problems. This matter needs further deliberation, conceptualising and some of that detail on how it would work with current structures, what current structures would be removed and how, with an overpowering mandate if somebody got elected, would he or she meet those expectations and what the means matching it would be in the context of, we will say, half the jobs, half the tax and half the people in the country, as well as the port and the airport for the entire country, being located within the area. Hasten slowly would probably be the advice from our side.