Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have a final question, and I am not even sure who to direct it to. One area that caused the most debate when we discussed the Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023 at prelegislative scrutiny stage was the issue of impeachment. We do not have a directly-elected executive office in Ireland, and one of the concerns expressed during discussion of the Limerick mayor Bill was that the threshold for impeaching a mayor was quite low. Given our multi-party system, and sometimes the tensions within coalition parties - even within Government - one could have a standoff between local authority members who might feel more liberated by any sort of allegiance to even their own colleagues within that party, and who might vote for impeachment. With the Limerick Bill, the structure is that the council could vote for impeachment and then it goes to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to make a final decision on the matter, and it can sit for long periods of time.

On that issue, the witnesses are well used to trying to get consensus in a council chamber. My fear is that issue of impeachment and a standoff between local and national government, or other political points drifting into what often are not council agenda items, would delay and bog down local government in a way that does not happen at the moment. That concept of impeaching the mayor sometimes happens with chief executives in the form of motions of no confidence. It can become very political, even though it is not even about the specific issues. I feel like Ms Feeney is the only one who might be able to answer that.