Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For Deputy McNamara's benefit, there was some discussion about this during pre-legislative scrutiny and, actually, our concern was about the title. We felt that maybe the term "deputy mayor" should have been applied and would be more easily understood. There was a very clear understanding during the discussion that, for the sake of the chamber and the members in the chamber, one would not want the mayor to control the discussion. It would be akin to a Minister chairing the Dáil instead of our having the benefit of the Ceann Comhairle, who chairs it more independently. There was a lot of discussion about the príomh chomhairleoir position from a public perception point of view, but we felt that they were different roles from the directly elected mayor. The other committee members might recall some of that discussion. We felt there was a need to have a person independent of the mayor to help the chamber hold him or her to account.