Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Green Party, I want to speak up for, support and encourage the people of the cities of Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick to agree with the proposal to have a directly-elected mayor. I deeply regret we are not adding the people of Dublin to that list. It is a real missed opportunity. A citizens' assembly is coming - and to answer one of the questions the Minister of State asked in his opening statement - it should include elected representatives. That is because we have experience of local government, most of us, which can usefully add to that assembly.

I will make some broad points to explain why we are so supportive of the concept of directly-elected mayors. I was at a Women for Election event last night. I reflected then that in the depth of our crisis about ten years ago, a whole range of different movements rightly rose up seeking to change our democracy and how we do things. Some of those things have been delivered. I refer to examples such as having gender quotas for people to run for Parliament. That has been very beneficial. The provisions originally written by the Green Party, and, in fairness, implemented by the subsequent Government, took corporate donations out of Irish politics. That is another example of how we have changed the nature of politics.

There are various missed opportunities I place at the doors of the Fine Gael and Labour parties during their time in government. One was the wrong property tax being picked. That was instead of a tax based on site value. That is one example. The other biggest failing, however, or one of the biggest in reforming the way we do politics, has been the failure to follow through in strengthening local government. I am particularly bitter about that because when we were in government, we introduced legislation for the introduction of a directly-elected mayor in Dublin. It had almost gone right through the parliamentary process, I think it was on Report Stage in the Seanad when we ran out of room and that Government fell. We were that close to achieving the objective of having a directly-elected mayor for Dublin.

The Government needs to rectify that. I hope the people will direct us towards have a real strengthening of local government by supporting the plebiscites. It is particularly important for Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick because we need to counterbalance the excessive and growing influence of Dublin as a centre of development. We need to see other strong cities to balance development more effectively. That is not to do down Dublin. I was at an interesting conference in Cork where clearly researched analysis showed that the development of second, third and fourth cities also tends to strengthen a capital. It is not one versus the other. I believe that will be best achieved by the people of Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway starting to develop their cities in a far more creative, careful and intelligent way.

No one could look at the development of those cities over the last 30 or 40 years and not surmise that the current system is fatally flawed. One of the key issues to examine is what the responsibilities of a directly-elected mayor would be in respect of planning. I agree with the Minster of State's comment in his statement that directly-elected mayors do not necessarily have to deal with individually planning decisions. I refer to co-ordinating planning such in the broad planning of a city and the broad task we have of turning around the city of Cork. It is a fantastic city with incredible Victorian and Georgian heritage. Over the past 30 or 40 years, however, the city has seen a hollowing out of its centre and a sprawl beyond it. That is because of a lack of leadership, a lack of co-ordination by the city council and a lack of any real vision for how Cork might develop as a city.

That needs to change and it needs local political leadership to make it happen. It is the same for each of the other cities. Only 3% of the population of Limerick city lives in the historic core area of the city. It is also a fantastic Georgian city with an amazing location on the Shannon. It too has seen a sprawl out with motorway networks that just lead to gridlock. The development of public transport has not been facilitated and nor has the development of high-quality new housing and schools close to where people work and want to live. That has to change. It is the same in Galway and that is probably the worst example, in terms of being a city where everyone seems to live on one side and then travel across to the other side to work. It is hell for motorists because we have built a city of roundabouts rather than a city of tribes.

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That has to change. A civil servant or a chief executive who has all the powers does not have the mandate to achieve the scale of change needed. While it may be contentious for the Minister of State as a Kilkenny man, in my mind Waterford needs to be the capital of the south east and promoted as such.

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