Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

The principle of a directly elected mayor of Dublin will find political favour with Fine Gael. We have no difficulty with the principle of having representatives directly elected by the people into a very significant office. However, I do not believe this is the appropriate time to proceed with this legislation and urge that it be deferred until 2014 in line with the local and European elections.

This is not an appropriate time to introduce legislation for another political position that has very little power and influence and offers principally civic and ceremonial duties to the office holder. As well as that, the Minister is bringing forward the position of a directly elected mayor at a time when he has no proposals or White Paper on local government reform, which he promised to have by the end of 2008. We shall have leaders of local government in Dublin, five local authorities and 148 public representatives at local level.

I believe this is a vanity project of the Minister. He cannot wait to put it through in legislation out of a sense that he is creating history in local government. However, he is not creating any office that will enhance the city of Dublin while he is failing to reform existing local government structures.

The Minister's speech constitutes an attempt on his part to vindicate a principle he has established over a period of time, and enshrined in the programme for Government. However, he has failed within Cabinet to get any real justification for the office on the basis of the power and influence it will have. The Bill to create a new directly elected mayor for Dublin will establish an expensive and powerless position, and this will have to be paid for by tax increases on businesses and increases in household charges because the savings that would have been made in local government budgets this year through the efficiency review group will be spent on this initiative.

The Minister has had serious problems regarding his assertion that this will not cost anything. A working group in his Department has been meeting with the four Dublin local authorities. The outcome of these deliberations is to the effect that the cost of a directly mayor of Dublin will be €5 million for staff costs for about 30 to 40 people, €2 million for facilities and €1 million for holding the election. That is €8 million for the costs of establishing this office.

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