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

I found the Minister of State's speech disappointing and lacking ambition. He submitted his paper, Local Authority Leadership, Governance and Administration, and he considered many of the key aspects of setting up devolved directly elected administrations. I very much welcome the possibility that mayors will be elected in Cork City Council, Limerick city and county and in Waterford. As I said when debating the Bill, I am very disappointed that Galway and my city did not get the same provision. The Minister of State set out the steps to be taken on plebiscites etc. and there is a tremendous need for devolved administrations at the closest level to the people. I did not like the Minister of State indicating in his speech that there would still be a chief executive officer, CEO. Surely the CEO would be the directly elected mayor. Would it not be better to call the head of the administration, who would be responsible for human resources etc., the secretary general or whatever?

The Minister of State has set out a reasonable argument on how to select the strategic planning committees. All of us who served in local government could see the leaders of the committees forming that type of cabinet across a local authority. The biggest disappointment is that the Minister has not gone straight ahead and asked the 1.5 million Dubliners to vote on this. As Deputy Lahart said so eloquently, they want somebody whom they can hold responsible for the range of services from local government that are not being fulfilled. This could relate to the state of the streets or lights. Even with housing there is a lethargic and bureaucratic approach from the four councils in the Dublin region. It is the record of the past 25 years and we need a much more dynamic system.

I have always been in favour of directly elected mayors and a strong supporter of a single directly elected mayor for the four Dublin local authorities. That mayor would have a small cabinet drawn from the four councils or a directly elected small assembly.

Last week we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the inaugural meeting of the first Dáil. The decision of Cumann na nGaedheal in the late 1920s to do away with local administration - at the time, there were local councils in Howth and Rathmines - and set up the bureaucracies involving county managers represented a very regressive step.

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