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

It is all about striking a balance. Regarding Deputy McNamara's point on the speaker and deputy speaker, the arrangement was recommended by the implementation group chaired by Mr. Tim O'Connor. Deputy Leddin was part of that. Once again, it is about striking a balance to make certain that whatever we put in place will work. It is based on the New York model. We took many of the group's recommendations on board.

The mayor will be an executive mayor, but not with all areas devolved, and will be answerable to the local authority members in the same way as the chief executive officer. The mayor will also be a member of the local authority. When examining legislation, we were very mindful not to impinge in any way on the current reserved powers of members, who, as Deputy Quinlivan said, are democratically elected, which I very much respect. The annual budget is to be brought by the mayor, rather than the chief executive officer, to the council chamber and voted on, the latter being a reserved function of the councillors.

On the mayoral programme itself, funding will be from national Governments, which will not in any way interfere with the existing resources of the local authority. The manifesto will be very much subjected to probity requirements by the public at election time. The mayor will have statutory powers, having regard to the implementation group, in terms of interaction with national government. He or she will have to be kept informed of everything to do with Limerick and will be able to request any information on Limerick from the national Government. Furthermore, the mayor will be able to bring any stakeholders in the region to the mayoral advisory group on a statutory basis.

We believe the role of the councillors and their reserved powers will remain intact. It is a matter of striking a balance in this regard. The councillors, by way of a reserved function, are to retain control of the annual budget. The mayoral programme is to be brought to the people democratically. The mayor will still be required under legislation to appear in the chamber to hear councillors' observations. I expect mayors will very much take this on board in the normal way. They will already have engaged in public consultation.

It is important that the mayor's mandate be respected. The mayor will go out with a manifesto and obtain a mandate, after which the role will be to implement it. However, the other elected members of the chamber will be consulted.