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

It is not that we do not want it to go to the people or that we do not want people to have an engagement. I think it is a recognition that this subject is an incredibly technical one. A bit like the witnesses have said, when you walk in on day one, it is very unlikely that any members of the general public are going to invest the time, energy or effort to read a general scheme, even if it is published. There is an argument to be had for legislating for it and having it dealt with in the Oireachtas, and parsed, discussed and debated. To be very honest, even with these public hearings, there is not an organised campaign group out there in favour of a directly elected mayor that has a very strong mandate across thousands of people in the city. We have not had many witnesses which we can structurally engage with. Many agencies are not organised on a Dublin basis. The fear would be that without that civic society structure, it may become a debate that will be dominated by other issues.

I have a second question. I am conscious that I have kept everyone else to time, so I have to keep myself in check also. I will throw some of the red herrings that may come up at the witnesses. I was disappointed that the report left some things in up the air, particularly around powers. For example, the assembly has recommended that education and transport would come under the remit of the directly elected mayor. What does that mean? Is the assembly proposing that teachers would be directly responsible to the office of a directly elected mayor? Would they be paid by the local authority? Would their reporting structure and salaries be done like that?

The NTA asked us a very good question. The assembly has suggested that transport should come under the remit of the mayor. Would the NTA second all of its staff dealing with Dublin projects to a directly elected mayor, and would they then be paid for by the office of the directly elected mayor within that structure?

On the final point, I will lean on Mr. Gavin's experience with the aviation authority. I imagine that if we gave, for example, aviation policy control for Dublin Airport to a directly elected mayor, that would have a very significant impact on the national policy framework. I am not asking the witnesses to speak specifically to that, but it is an example of how we almost have to be careful. We are only short of declaring independence in some of these things. The danger with that is that it throws up a lot of red herrings for people to object and we do not get the basic level of reform that we actually really need. That is the bit I would have liked to have seen more clarity on. That is what Government will have to bring. It would be interesting to get the witnesses' views on that.