Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have much sympathy for this amendment. I was very involved in the campaign in 2019 to support a "Yes" vote in the plebiscite. I was very proud to have been part of that campaign, as was Deputy Quinlivan. Limerick alone made that decision. Cork and Waterford were not brave enough and Limerick was. We said we were going to be the test bed for this really important reform of local government in this country. I would say it is the most important reform in 100 years.

I really have a lot of sympathy with the amendment because it is coming from a very good place. I would certainly think along the same lines that what we wanted and were proposing to do and what the people voted for in 2019 was an executive role - a very explicitly executive role - for this new office and position that was being created. It is what the people of Limerick expect. In many respects, the people of Limerick identified that there was a problem with how local government works in Limerick and those misgivings exist across the country as well.

I will not support the amendment, however. Similar to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan's point, we are in somewhat uncharted territory with this reform. We need to take a step forward. We might want to take a bigger step forward and that might be our instinct. We are going to a place this country has not gone before with this office. There are backstops. There are checks in the legislation. We will come to further amendments about the review, which was actually discussed already. That is a really important piece of this legislation, the evolution of which is guaranteed.

I just ask that the Minister of State, as someone who cares about this legislation very much but also as a Limerick man who would like to see the best possible outcome, would take this particular amendment and the spirit of it and seek to improve and refine the legislation as it goes through the remaining Stages in the Oireachtas. What is at stake here is a missed opportunity to have that reform of local government we would like to see. The caveat is that we are in uncharted territory. It is a role that will evolve over the years. We need to take a step forward, but let us take the best possible step forward that we can.