Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I met with the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, last night and at my request this was one of the issues on the agenda. I am very committed to the project of directly elected mayors. It was always the intention that the mayor would not just take on most of the functions of the chief executive of the local authority but would also have additional functions that would be devolved from central government. The legislation is progressing well, and it is intended that it would be in the House well before the summer, and hopefully enacted well before the summer. There is no date for the mayoral election yet because obviously the legislation must be enacted first. The intention is to have that legislation done before the summer recess. There is, quite frankly, some bureaucratic resistance from certain Departments - not mine - when it comes to the delegation and devolution of functions. It never goes as far as some people would want it to, but it should go far. In my view, this is the prototype for what could be done in Cork, Galway and Dublin. I really want it to work in Limerick, and we are determined that it should.

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