Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I was a member of the implementation advisory group before I found myself in this particular role.

I know quite a bit about this. It is critical the office has meaningful powers. The new directly elected mayor of Limerick, who I hope will be elected this year, should have the power to select staff and directors of services. He or she should be able to set the priorities of the council, have power over the budget and the spending of the council and have the power to raise revenue. I firmly believe we should build into the legislation a review mechanism to make it better. We need to honour the plebiscite we had in Limerick city and county three years ago. If the Government takes its role seriously in drafting the legislation the people of Limerick will take the election of the directly elected mayor seriously also.

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