Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Indeed. That is probably true.

The truth is that we have to resource mayors properly and give them the responsibility and - dare I say it, unpopularly perhaps - the remuneration to ensure they have a full-time job that keeps them engaged with their local community and that they can make a career out of it. Let us be honest about the fact that, across all sides of the House, we recognise that councillors are dreadfully underpaid for a role that really should be much larger than it currently is. The only way of improving that role is to give more responsibility to the officeholders involved.

With regard to the executive powers, the change of role of the current mayor and the proper accountability of that officeholder are critical to the success or failure of this project. I echo the comments of Deputy Cassells, who used the term "pilot project". That is an incredibly important element of this debate. It is a pilot project. I am 100% supportive of it if we get it right in terms of the devolution of responsibility to the officeholder but I would very much like to see the project rolled out across the country. I would like to see included our existing local authorities and certain cities — Galway, Cork and Limerick, perhaps. I want to ensure this is rolled out across the country because I do not want to see a figurehead with executive responsibility in the cities only to the detriment of our counties. My party learned an awful lot from the last general election about the view of our rural population on what the Government is doing. If we bring in an urban mayor to the detriment of, or without including, rural local authorities across the State, the people will not thank us for it. I commend Deputy Lahart and others on the Bill and the Minister of State on the amendment. I support both on this occasion.

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