Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There was a debate on another Bill last night, and there is a debate on this Bill tonight, on the idea of having a plebiscite in Dublin and of having a Dublin mayor for the city and county, which actually exists. I am not opposed to the idea of a plebiscite or a referendum if there is a demand for such but I wish the Government would listen on other matters. This idea has been knocking around for a few years. It was certainly widely debated when I was a councillor. It sounds like a great idea to people to have a directly elected mayor for Dublin. Everyone thinks we are electing a mayor, and that is fine, but there is much more involved in this. First, there is huge potential for corruption, concentrating a wide range of powers in the hands of one person and moving decision making further away from local areas and centralising it. I cannot believe the Green Party is putting forward the idea of what essentially would be a cabinet of ten councillors for all of Dublin. I am not sure what the other 150 odd would be meant to be doing. Presumably, they would be twiddling their thumbs.

I would remind Members that Ken Livingstone, who should know something about this, spoke out about the concept of directly elected mayors. He stated:

I was always opposed to having a directly elected mayor because it concentrates all the power in one person and there is huge potential for corruption. I mean, you look at all the big developments in London, each of those decisions where it went ahead, was mine. I could easily have said ... to the developer 'I need 100 grand for this if you want it through'. That's what happens, pretty much, in America. At any one time in America there's ... at least 50 mayors in prison for corruption.

The reason I started with that reference is that I have not heard anyone talk about this aspect of it but in many cities in England people have demanded referendums to get back to the idea of not having a mayor but having a cathaoirleach and a council. Those questions have to be answered.

On the Green Party proposal of four local authorities sending ten people to surround this strong man or woman, as the case may be-----

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