John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I do not know how long ago that was or the circumstances. We need, however, to rethink the structures of local government. What we have now is an inherited British model but is it suitable to our modern State and does it have the dynamism and flexibility to deal with the issues? The answer is probably "No". We must reinvent it. It may be a difficult transition but we need to be quite radical. The mayoralty is only one aspect of that, but if we are to have more dynamic local authorities with fewer people on them, it raises the question about the number of people in this Dáil. Should we have a slimmed-down Dáil? That question does not go down too well in this House.

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