Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I will keep my remarks fairly brief. I like to think I have a fairly good handle on Dublin. I have lived in Dublin 1, Dublin 6, Dublin 7, Dublin 12, Dublin 14, south county Dublin and now live in north county Dublin and I support the idea of a directly-elected mayor. However, I have a concern, and it was mentioned by the south Dublin chamber, and it is about the danger that potentially we could end up with a mayor who is city centre centric. I note the Fingal submission stated that if a directly-elected mayor is to be introduced, the jurisdiction has to cover the entirety of Dublin county in order to ensure there is a cohesive approach. We have just heard a suggestion there that perhaps there would be an overarching mayor and then four deputies. I am not certain how that would work. However, have our guests a view on the best way to maintain that balance? The directly-elected mayor will have a mandate from all of the people of Dublin city and county. It is important that person, whoever he or she is, is able to cover the full remit and ensure that balance. Will it be possible to do that or, and this is the danger, in attempting to do that do we run the risk of creating many bureaucratic layers which will undo a lot of the good? I see some of our guests are nodding. Can I have the views of the guests on that?