Dáil debates
Thursday, 24 January 2019
Directly Elected Mayors: Statements
2:20 pm
Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source
They would vote for the men and women who would take on this considerable task to turn Cork into a city of 500,000 people and Limerick, 250,000 people, as was envisaged in the Buchanan report but abandoned over the past 50 years. The current system is not working and needs to change.
I broadly agree with the proposal that the relationship between the new directly elected mayor and the local authority chief executive would be akin to that of a Minister and a departmental Secretary General. I agree with the proposal for making the chairs of the various strategic planning committees, the current corporate policy group, into a cabinet. That is an easy way of the current system evolving into this approach. Those of us who have worked as councillors know the local area committee system works. That should be strengthened at the same time. Powers should not just rest in the key areas of transport and planning but include enterprise development, culture and the environment. I would also like to see the strengthening of local government in education, policing and healthcare.
This would really empower local government. However, it will happen better when faith in local government is returned. Faith in politics comes from people having the ability to get rid of a mayor if they do not like the way their city is being run and developed. The current system whereby we hand over a mayoral chain every year is a phoney exercise, pretending the real power is there. It is deeply unfair to councillors and those who take up the office of mayor. My experience in Dublin is that one is only getting to grips with it and understanding the scale of the job when one is then out of office because the year is up. It is a completely flawed and failed system.
Being brave in terms of adopting a different system is the right way to go. It needs to be done in tandem with other elements. At a climate committee meeting yesterday, I acknowledged that some of the initiatives such as the regional rural and urban development funds, as well as the climate fund, are well designed. Rather than the system deciding everything centrally in the Department of Finance or the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, it is far better for us to provide funding to allow local authorities or other institutions to make bids to do regeneration projects. Those projects which work best should then be replicated in other parts of the country. In those circumstances where there is a significant pot of money for cities to compete where the best project wins, this would encourage the expertise, planning and thinking in local authorities which would help them flourish.
When will the convention for Dublin take place? My city is probably the one in greatest need for new leadership. The current system in Dublin is broken. We are facing gridlock in our city. We have an inability to develop. We are still widening every approach road to Dublin. The greatest possible lunacy in transport and planning is happening under the current system. We need a mayor for Dublin. We need for that convention to finish to ensure Dublin can have its plebiscite. Dublin deserves the right to have a directly elected mayor and a say in how our city should grow.
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