Mr. Jim Gavin:

It was an eye-opener for the 67 citizens of the assembly. There were 80 members, 12 of whom were councillors. They understood the political system and how local government works. I was the 68th member, the independent chair. We were all taken by the great work that councils do. We were surprised and aghast at how centralised local government is in Ireland. I understand there is a legacy to that and the reasons behind it, but we were all surprised by the lack of autonomy for councillors and that chief executives, who are not elected representatives and do not have a mandate, hold the executive power. That is something we all found surprising.

To go back to our terms of reference, we were not asked whether it was a good or bad idea, but it was obvious to all of us that we need a directly-elected mayor. We were asked what type of governance should sit around the directly-elected mayor and what type of powers the mayor should have. We were very explicit about what those should be.

The technical realities of how that is put together was not a matter for the assembly. It is the job of the Oireachtas, Government and professional civil servants to bring that together. Our job is to make recommendations regarding what powers the mayor should have. We were not asked whether there should be a plebiscite, but the members, as Ms O'Connor alluded to, felt that because of their experience and in order for the process to succeed citizens would need to have a vote. That is, however, a matter for the committee and Government to determine.