Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I join others in thanking the citizens' assembly. I am sure members of it are watching online today to see how the Oireachtas is going to dissect and look through the very fine recommendations the assembly made. I also acknowledge Deputy McAuliffe, who has chaired all of these sessions. As a former Lord Mayor of Dublin, he was the right choice for that.

I am the only representative from outside the Pale discussing the question of the Dublin mayor. I think the fact that I live in Bray means I am close enough to take a seat here. I am a firm supporter of a directly elected mayor. I am just not exactly sure what powers this mayor should have. That is the value of having this discussion and the work that assembly did as well. Ms O'Connor raised the point about many people being unsure of what a local authority actually does. It is one of the weaknesses in our local authority system that we do not produce enough information on a monthly or a six-monthly basis for general public consumption on the good work that local authorities do around the country. People often only engage with their local authority when they have a problem. They are not aware of the good stuff that goes on.

I am a firm supporter of decision making at the lowest effective level. I completely agree with the recommendations made on the issues of homelessness and housing. A directly elected mayor should have responsibility for those. Transport and the environment are two other areas, because the local authorities work on these areas as well. I am not sure the emergency services and community healthcare could immediately be taken under the aegis of a directly elected mayor. I will come to the reasoning on that in a moment.

The assembly gave scope to bring policing, water and education in over a five- to ten-year period. The committee recently engaged with the question of the Limerick mayor. We have just finished the Committee Stage debate on the Limerick mayor Bill. One of the discussions we had was on the extent to which we empower the mayor. There has to be a certain amount of ability to raise funding. They have to have the resources, and not just the decision-making power. Decision-making power without the ability to back it up with funding or be able to source one's own funding very much limits a mayor. That idea was countered with the need to get it right initially without rushing in and giving the mayor so many powers that it would almost set them up to fail. Those are the main challenges that I see in this process.

I will return to the question on the recommendation to hold a plebiscite. From my understanding, it evolved in the later stages of the assembly. How did that question come about or how did it evolve? The remit was to discuss the type of mayor and the powers they might have but not necessarily the plebiscite question.