Mr. Daithí de Róiste:

I thank the Senators for their comments. I have a couple of different things to say in response. I am fully in favour of a directly elected mayor, but when are we going to get serious about it? As the mayor of South Dublin, Councillor Edge, said, there is this idea of just doing something for the sake of doing it. Are we going to give a directly elected mayor the power to actually run the city? I do not believe so. If we look at what has come out of the citizens' assembly and everything else, I do not see the Department of housing giving over housing authority to a directly elected mayor. I do not see the Department of Transport and the NTA giving power to a directly elected mayor. I do not see the Department of Justice giving power over policing in the city to a directly elected mayor. That is just on the political side. The recommendations indicate the directly elected mayor should be in charge of all the primary health centres in Dublin and primary and secondary schools in Dublin. We are 12 years trying to amalgamate Irish Water and get the staff across and we think we are going to be able to do those things with a directly elected mayor.

It was recommended that the four local authorities stay separate, but that is four directors of services and four chief executives. I do not know how it works. We would probably be better served with a Minister for Dublin at the Cabinet table than a directly elected mayor. If we give the position the power, then I say, "Yes, 100%", but we are not going to get the power for housing, policing or transport, so what are we doing? We are creating this office that somebody is going to run for and have a five-year term, but ultimately they are not going to be able to deliver anything. They will get what are called consultative powers, which means they do not have the power to do anything within the city. Unless we are going to fully resource it, get behind it and say this is what we want to do, it is pointless. It is a waste of time and it is fugazi that everybody is talking about, if you ask me, and I am someone who is in favour of a directly elected mayor.

On the point about women, we are hosting a gathering in the Mansion House in a couple of weeks for councillors who are not running again and about 85% of them are women. They are the most talented politicians I have come across in local government and they are deciding it is not for them. It is for a myriad of reasons, but that is what they are deciding. It is mostly brilliant women who have done so much throughout our process, like Alison Gilliland, Anne Feeney and Tara Deacy. They are deciding not to run again. There is something fundamentally wrong with our system of local democracy if these really talented public representatives are deciding this is not for them. That needs to be addressed and addressed seriously.

On the independent advice, maybe this is from a Dublin City Council perspective, but I have no issues with that. We regularly bring in senior counsels, or if the councillors request one, the executive will come back with a panel and we will pick one and we can get independent advice as we wish.

The relationship with the executive is really positive from the point of view of my council. We had a new chief executive, Mr. Richard Shakespeare, come in before Christmas. He has hit the ground running when it comes to consultation, meeting individual groups and bringing everybody in as part of the process. We have a really good relationship in Dublin City Council as part of that.

It would be lunacy to reverse the idea of hybrid meetings. If the argument is people are disengaged, they are going to be disengaged in the chamber or at home because they are disengaged in their work. I do not think I would be doing that. There is the facilitation piece for people at home with family life, but there is also climate. If we are going to walk the talk on climate action, why should I have to come in to City Hall three or four times a week for an hour-long meeting we can do online? That is what hybrid facilitates. We have joint policing committees, area committees and strategic policy committees. You could be driving into the centre of the city three or four times a week for a meeting that is working really well in a hybrid way. On anything we do, the recommendation must be that it must be there to facilitate people, and those who are disengaged are disengaged in the chamber as well.