Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I always look to see whether we can find a process to work through. The backbone of the legislation for me, and I have gone through it, is that there is no blueprint for a directly elected mayor working anywhere in the world. I have read much, but no doubt I have not read everything. I have seen many that have failed, however. Bristol and Liverpool are both reversing their decision for a directly elected mayor. The Bill itself is very strong in structure. There is an implementation group that I would say is unique in any mayoral legislation. It came out of Mr. Tim O'Connor's recommendation in terms of the implementation group, designed on what was brought forward in the Anglo-Irish Agreement, whereby the mayor would have a plenary session twice a year with Government or as many other meetings as either side decides. The original draft was based on the Minister deciding on those. I changed the legislation to make it ranking pari passu.

In terms of Deputy Quinlivan's amendments, we would be of the view that we are already dealing with the living wage at a national level. On the promotion and delivery on the advertising, I tried to include it in the Bill but maybe we could do a bit more on it. I take Deputy McAuliffe's point on the joint policing committees. It is not in there because it comes to a different piece of legislation. It was put forward to the people at the time, however. On the waste management side, certainly, we could make that about the enforcement. The mayor has to have in involvement in that area of improving the public realm. The mayor will have oversight with regard to the implementation of regeneration projects.

The mayor's role will be critical in this regard. The designated activity company covers a lot of the planning role. I would like us to look at some aspects and while I cannot say we will agree on all of them we might be able to move them to Report Stage. We can both look at them and at least try to find a compromise. It is very important for the people of Limerick.

I go back to the point made by Deputy Leddin. There is an element of the unknown in this. It will be the first in Ireland. We can look at this in a number of ways. A total of 52% voted for it and 48% voted against it. Many people are sceptical about the directly elected mayor. We can say that people did not understand it. I would prefer that we pass the legislation. The structures in it are strong. We might not agree that it covers everything but the corporate structures are reasonably strong. We will look through this, come back to it and try to avoid votes if at all possible. In this spirit of co-operation I ask that we move this to Report Stage. I am in the hands of Deputy Quinlivan.