Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I disagree with the previous speaker. One need only look at my constituency in which there are two local authorities, Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council, which operate like totally different countries in many infrastructural, planning and other matters. There is a key need to have an all-Dublin approach for the good of citizens. A lot of people in my constituency, including that part of it which is in Fingal, do not care what local authority area they live in. They live in Dublin. While there is a Fingal hurling team, there is a single "Dubs" team and a single culture.

I warmly welcome this comprehensive Bill from the Green Party and the Bill last night put forward by Fianna Fáil although I think we should create the office of mayor of Dublin for 2019. The first and second chapters of the Green Party Bill set out comprehensive provisions on the position of mayor itself and the regional authority. I am not sure that we need a CEO along with the mayor as the mayor would surely be the chief executive. The provisions on housing and transport set out in Part 4 are clearly critical. As Deputy Coppinger said, we have lost control of water and drainage and waste collection, which moves I bitterly opposed. I would restore them to local government tomorrow if I was sitting where the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is sitting. Broadly speaking, it is about having a single elected person for Dublin rather than unelected bureaucrats.

Local government really only started in this country in any shape or form in the late 19th century. For reasons known only to themselves, Fine Gael, supported later by Fianna Fáil, introduced a county manager system from the United States when we gained our independence. A lot of American areas did away with their mayors and brought in managers, which we took up as well. Now, we have a situation in which unelected bureaucrats comprise the housing authority, the planning authority, the traffic authority and were previously in charge of water and drainage also. Anyone who has served in local government, as I was very proud to do as a member of Dublin City Council for just over 12 years, including the period when I led the rainbow civic alliance with Deputy Eamon Ryan and others, knows the frustration of not being able to democratically control the council. Yet, councils were left with these strange reserved powers in regard to rezoning. Why was that power left with them or the power to fix commercial rates? While it is a great honour at the moment to be elected as mayor of one's city or county for a year, some people, like the commentator Vincent Browne, have described those who are as "Toytown mayors". One is in for a year and just beginning to get to know the system and then one is out. It is a great honour for oneself and one's community, but what can one actually achieve?

In my own experience, the dead hand of local and national civil and public servants often held back our city government. We had many very good ideas in the rainbow and civic alliance when I led the Labour Party on the council. We were joined by the Green Party and Fine Gael. The important point was that the Labour Party was, at the time, the largest party in the group. Local government has little or no role in Ireland in education, health and policing, which is all the business of local government. Stockholm has a very similar local government system to us but the mayor, Karin Björnsdotter Wanngård, has a crucial executive role for the capital of Sweden. One looks abroad and sees the mayors who have come into American cities and done a good job expressing the culture of the city. Speakers have mentioned former mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg and while one might have disagreed with their political orientation, they seemed to be able to get the city bureaucracy moving for the people. The current mayor of New York is Bill de Blasio. They did things in regard to public transport and so on that the local authority was simply not doing. Two of our twin cities when I was a councillor were San José and Liverpool. San José has always had a mayor and Liverpool will elect one next year where the distinguished politician, Mr. Andy Burnham, is the Labour candidate. In terms of the mayors of London, I am closest in my views to those of the current mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the former mayor, Ken Livingstone. It is generally agreed that Mr. Livingstone did a good job.

While one might say there is a danger of corruption where one has a single executive power, it exists in this House as well. If one looks at the Flood, Mahon and Moriarty tribunals, one can see that the House has not been immune from the ravages of corruption. Currently, there are 17 directly-elected mayors across England. I noticed in regard to this that it was the right-wing press in Britain that led vicious campaigns against regional assemblies. Many people, including the then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, wanted to have a directly-elected mayor and a regional assembly in Newcastle, but the idea was shot down mainly by campaigns by the Daily Expressand the Murdoch press. Across Europe, we have what are in effect city states like Hamburg and Bremen where there is local democratic control of local functions, which is the key issue we are discussing here.

Dublin needs a mayor. There are 1.4 million people living in the four Dublin counties and we are destined to grow to 1.8 million. I was on the greater Dublin regional authority and with our neighbouring Leinster counties, we are going to have a population equivalent to that of Wales. Having a focal point of democratic control in that context is critical. We know what we need in transport infrastructure and, above all, in housing. It has been so frustrating to come in here day after day over the last five years and watch the Government do little or nothing and produce no houses in the four counties in Dublin. I cannot believe someone who had to stand for re-election would not have done better. That is the fundamental point.

Our Green Party colleagues have set out what the office would look like. In this context democratic control is important.

We have to remember that Dublin may soon be the only European Union capital on these islands. Most of our sister capitals have seriously democratic local administrations.

I would prefer the strategy that is being adopted in the Green Party Bill, especially having a regional authority. The section of the Bill dealing with the relationship with the four counties is critical. Those counties have to be included. In the past, Fingal County Council defeated the proposal when the Green Party was in government. It should not have been in government, but it was with Fianna Fáil and the proposal was defeated.

I want to commend Deputies Lahart and Ryan and other colleagues for bringing the Bill forward. We can construct a really democratic government for this great city and it is what we need.

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