Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

A new regional development board will be chaired by the Mayor and will replace four city and county development boards. I welcome that. The new regional development board will bring together leaders in local government, commerce, education, enterprise and other key partners. Ratepayers should be included, as key stakeholders. The Mayor's mandate will give him or her the authority to hold these sectors to account in delivering for Dublin and, by extension, for other parts of the country. That is vital.

The staff of the Mayor's office will provide administrative support to the Mayor and the authority and will be composed of approximately 30 personnel. A senior advisory team will be appointed directly by the Mayor for the duration of his or her tenure; the remainder of the office staff will consist of personnel seconded or transferred from Dublin local authorities, including the existing staff of the Dublin Regional Authority.

I hope we will not have all chiefs and no indians and that there will be meaningful work for these people. I am not knocking all public servants, but we need visionary staff. I believe we need staff from the private sector. I know the Mayor has the option of appointing some staff. We need new thinking in local government. We need visionary people and business ideas. We need to motivate and stimulate and be the movers and shakers. Business people must be supported. Initiatives that come must be grasped and dealt with. Those with initiative should be helped rather than met with layers of bureaucracy, sent from one agency to another and given no support until they leave when their enthusiasm and ideas have faded away. I hope the office of the Mayor will be independent-minded. It will certainly have to be independent of the managers of the Dublin local authorities.

Last year's severe weather damage highlighted the challenges facing the Mayor of Dublin, or of any region. The Mayor will set down the water services strategy to cater for the region's needs. The Government is committed to capital support for these vital services. I have questions here, as I have in my own county, about keeping the local contribution in line with Government investment in these chastened times. The polluter pays principle and the water-in/water-out method of payment are hard and difficult on business people, the only people who are paying water rates. Even businesses that are not operating are being issued with rate demands. I also want the valuations office to be examined. This is a national rather than a Mayoral issue but the method of assessing properties for valuation needs to be reviewed.

The introduction of the Mayor will not cost the taxpayer a single additional cent. The costs of the Mayor will be met entirely from within existing local government resources. However, we know they are strained. I do not believe the office of the Mayor will not cost a single cent. It will cost money, but if stakeholders, including ratepayers, are involved and get value for money they will not mind it costing money.

When the Bill was published earlier this year one of the criticisms made was that no discretionary budget will be available for the directly elected Mayor, making the role toothless. This has raised doubts over how powerful will be the directly elected Mayor. We must thrash that out and deal with it on Committee Stage to achieve clarity. The new mayor of Dublin will not need his or her own budget but, because the four local authorities already have a combined budget of €1.5 billion, not counting capital expenditure of €1.5 billion, we know how many demands there will be on resources. I live in the real world. The local authorities will continue to use this fund to fund all operational activities but these activities will take place within the policy framework set out by the mayor. When necessary, he or she will direct that the policy framework be followed. I am sure the Dublin electorate will make a wise decision. We need a very strong, independent thinker as mayor. I wish that person the best in his or her role.

Some members have drawn comparisons with the alleged superior budgetary powers of the Mayor of London. We do not have to watch what the Mayor of London does and should be able to set our own course for our own capital city in this independent country. This is very important.

More clarity is required in respect of defining constituency boundaries. More thought must be put into this and the boundaries should be aligned with the Garda divisional boundaries, HSE area boundaries and others so there will be no crisscrossing. We need to be able to focus clearly. Members of the electorate need to know where the boundaries are and will need to know whether they have a vote in the election of a directly-elected mayor.

The register of electors was mentioned. It has been abused in some cases. Perhaps the mayor of Dublin could advocate bringing the electoral registration system into the 21st century. The current system is archaic, outdated and very expensive. With modern technology, people should be able to register within days of an election and should be able to vote from abroad, as occurs in other countries. I do not know why we cannot achieve this now.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, is in charge of the e-voting machines. I begged him to put the machines, whose storage costs a fortune, into use in the community. The new mayor could take on a role in this regard. The machines could be used in schools and community development projects rather than paying somebody to store them and, eventually, to destroy them.

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