Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I do not know where to start. There has been so much misinformation thrown around in the contributions of some Opposition Deputies that one could spend hours refuting them.

I will start with the context of this debate and when it is being held. The legislation took longer than expected to draft. Whereas normally one person would allocate half his or her time to drafting legislation, two people were assigned to drafting this Bill. In setting out the roles and functions of the mayor, one must also set out the specifics in terms of how the mayoral election will be held. As a result, the legislation was delayed.

Even at this time of economic uncertainty, it is not wise to pooh-pooh a progressive idea. This is the first phase of a radical transformation in terms of how local government carries out its functions. During the next couple of years we will, as agreed in the renewed programme for Government, see far-reaching reforms in this area. The easiest and therefore first item on the reform agenda was the Dublin mayor because there is already in situ a Dublin regional authority. The White Paper on local government, when released, will set out the other half of the equation in terms of the potential to elect mayors for a five year term in each of the local authority areas and to make the local authorities more powerful by subsuming their power upwards where practical to create regional authorities as opposed to little town councils. Town councils as they currently stand will become district councils. The hope is that real decisions will be made about areas and that we will no longer have a system which is the legacy of the British empire. We wanted a new way of looking at local government and this is part of our response in that regard.

I was unable to participate in the debate earlier on the economic situation we are in. However, let us be blunt. There are speculators who are trying to bring Ireland down, following which they will move on to other European countries. In that context, the Government is fighting an action to protect our sovereignty and to stand up for us. We do not need a bailout. Reference has been made in the news to a banking bailout under the cover of a broader bailout. We do not want a bailout. We do not want to take the medicine and we should not, therefore, be prescribed conditions. That is the battle we face.

I have full confidence in the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, doing his best on behalf of the country. I believe we should all stand together on this issue. However, the fact that our economic sovereignty is under threat does not mean we cannot examine other areas. I attended a committee last week which discussed the vision for the arts and how arts could benefit the country. I referred at that committee meeting to the Wexford Opera which was started from scratch in the 1950s. It is now an internationally renounced festival which brings jobs to the south-east region and tourists to Ireland. The Wexford Opera was started at a time when Ireland was a semi-medieval country with no facilities of which to speak, a time when people thought bigger and had vision. This is what we are speaking of in the context of this legislation. We might be in the economic mire but that does not mean we must all wallow in it and paint all the bad news stories. I accept the situation is tough.

I recently said on radio - I make no apologies for this - that people need to be afraid. It is only when presented with a reality check that one realises the tough situation one is in. I also said on that occasion that there is light at the end of the tunnel. That light is in part us having faith in ourselves as a people to get out of the mess we are in. I believe the right type of Dublin mayor can assist Dubliners in creating jobs and bringing tourism and investment to the country. This legislation is about looking beyond the current economic recession. It is about looking to the future and being bold, decisive and brave about it. We should not wait until 2014 to do this. We should plan it now because it might not be until 2014 that the real positive benefits of this position in situ will be achieved. Whoever is the mayor of Dublin at that time will ride on the crest of the wave of progress made.

This legislation does not hamper someone with the right mindset, vision, tools and ability to communicate and interact with people making Dublin a better place. The reasons for this are clear. This mayoralty is about bringing the power in terms of how Dublin is operated back to the people. We currently have four Dublin city and county authorities. These were set up under the British system. Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin-Fingal were split from the former Dublin County Council into individual entities not because of any vision for great progress in local authority, but because of the corruption that was going on, the dodgy deals being done in Conways and the type of people who attacked former Green Party leader, Deputy Sargent, and waved a cheque in front of him. That is the type of bull that was going on in our county. The authorities were split up because it was believed doing so would make them more manageable. Since that split, we have seen the same rezoning frenzies from, in particular, the two largest parties. We have had the same politicians happy to take money from developers and happy to have pro-development policies. While there is nothing wrong with pro-development policies, if one is taking money the question, "Why did you take it?", will always be asked.

A Fine Gael councillor in my area was given £1,000 for supporting the rezoning of a piece of land in Lucan. The councillor said she supported the rezoning of that land and that the fact that she took £1,000 from the developer had nothing to do with it.

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