Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We in the Labour Party welcome the opportunity to debate this Bill. In particular, I thank the local Labour Party organisation in Limerick for its input on the Bill, especially my colleagues in Limerick, councillors Conor Sheehan, Elena Secas and Joe Leddin, who have provided me with a very important input and observations on this topic. As the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, will be well aware, the Labour Party has a long history and a proud tradition in Limerick. I think of our wonderful former representatives such as Jan O'Sullivan, who remains very actively engaged in local politics, and the late Jim Kemmy, who had such a powerful influence on national and local politics.

I want to speak broadly in support of the principle of directly elected mayors and to welcome the fact that the Bill will finally bring that about, albeit very late in the day and just in respect of one city, namely, Limerick. What we should be seeing, which is long overdue, is a more comprehensive system of the reform of local government to ensure real and substantial devolution or decentralisation of power to local government. I think in particular of Dublin, our capital city. I know a great deal of work has been done in the citizens' assembly and so on, but we do need to see more swift movement towards a directly elected mayor for Dublin. My constituency colleague, Councillor Dermot Lacey, has long been a very powerful advocate for a directly elected mayor for Dublin. We are all aware that much of our system of local government remains largely unchanged from the 19th century. It remains very centralised and very much based on an outdated British model of governance. It is ironic, therefore, that in Britain we have seen cities such as London, Manchester and Liverpool move towards much greater devolution of power to a directly elected metropolitan mayor. This time last year I attended the British Labour Party conference in Liverpool. While there, I caught up with Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester. There is an example of a mayor who has really used the role of metropolitan mayor of Manchester to become a very influential advocate for regional development. His work has led to great improvements, not only in his own city, but is more generally seen as a model for other cities and urban areas. That system of devolved power, which includes mayors like Sadiq Khan in London, contrasts starkly with the very disempowered position of mayor here in Ireland. Currently, mayors such as the Dublin mayor, remain largely ceremonial roles, with only a one-year mandate, and they are not directly elected. That has led to a democratic deficit and a lack of co-ordinated thinking across our urban centres. Dynamic cities like Dublin, but also Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick, are hampered in competing on an international stage with other cities. We all acknowledge that the lack of a more substantial position of metropolitan mayor has contributed to that. We do need to see local government in Ireland brought more into line with local governments in other jurisdictions where we have got really meaningful systems of accountability across local authorities with elected representatives responsible for the implementation of policies that make a difference in people's lives such as on education, local healthcare and so on. It is unfortunate that currently councillors have such few and limited powers. We believe that this Bill should be the start of a process where we see wider reform of local government and proper rebalancing of powers between councillors and their executive, with expanded reserved powers for councillors. It would appear that there is still some reticence from the Custom House to accede to that rebalancing that is really so necessary to ensure proper accountability. This is not about placing power in the hands of councillors for its own sake; this is about democratic accountability and elected representatives who are accountable to residents in local areas who vote for them. It is about democracy at its most local level.

Before turning to the Bill itself, I want to speak about the current state of play as it relates to the balance of powers between the mayor and executive in local authorities. As we are all aware, at present responsibilities at council level are divided into two areas: reserved functions for elected councillors and executive functions that are essentially in the hands of the chief executive, who in reality has become an all-powerful figure in all local authorities. Broadly speaking, policy decisions are still made by resolutions of the elected councillors. Reserved functions include the passing of annual budgets, housing policy decisions, making development plans and policies on environmental protection. In reality, the duty of the chief executive to perform executive functions and to advise and assist the elected council has assumed much greater significance than it perhaps looks on paper. The chair of the council, the mayor or cathaoirleach, elected by councillors, has functions in relation to chairing plenary meetings and strategic policy committees but the primary function remains somewhat ceremonial in most councils. This Bill attempts to carve out a role for the mayor, which it seems will lie somewhere between the elected council and the chief executive. It is a new division of responsibility.

When the general scheme was first drafted, it was very much in general terms and it was not clear what territory between the elected council's policy function and the decision-making function of the chief executive, now to be the director general, would be marked out for the mayor to occupy. The Bill, while it differs from the general scheme, seems to attempt to achieve the same objective, but there is still a lack of clarity as to what precisely that territory will be for the directly elected mayor. That is the critical point. As Conor Sheehan, our councillor in Limerick, pointed out in an editorial on this topic last year the concern is that under legislation which does not provide a real and substantive role for a directly elected mayor, the directly elected mayor could amount to little more than a well-remunerated chauffeured lobbyist. That is the concern. The Minister will appreciate that.

The Bill replaces the mayor, CEO and cathaoirleach with a directly elected mayor, which is the biggest new change. We will also see the replacement of a CEO with the director general and a new chair, called a príomh chomhairleoir, to be elected by the council. Presumably, relations between this new first councillor and the mayor will depend on electoral outcomes and party political considerations. One could envisage somewhat of a power battle might go on in practice. The directly elected mayor would attend, speak and vote at council meetings, and attend and speak at district meetings. Questions to the mayor can be tabled in that way. The mayor would inherit some functions of what is currently the cathaoirleach, apart from presiding at plenary meetings and chairing the corporate policy group. The mayor will also inherit all functions of the previous CEO, apart from the Schedule list. Of course, that is critical.

The mayor could, it seems, delegate in writing the performance of some functions to the director general and delegated functions would then be performed by the director general, subject to the general superintendence and control of the mayor and any conditions or restrictions in writing. Instead of a broadly phrased exemption covering, for example, the administration of schemes, grants and loans, as in the general scheme, the Bill has a Schedule of specific sections of particular Acts where functions are confirmed that will remain with the director general. Broadly, it seems to us that the exclusions relate to housing, planning and waste.

Internal financial borrowing and banking functions, account keeping and responsibility for staffing matters will also be excluded from the mayor's remit. For example, it would remain the function of the director general to act as housing authority regarding all housing services, including social and affordable housing, shared ownership, grants, subsidies, loans, homelessness, management and the control of local authority housing. That is still a very broad range of functions for the director general.

It seems the council will continue to elect its own chair and the new mayor, as I have said, will attend, vote and be subject to the policy remit of the council. When we look at the detail of this, it seems that the council will, in effect, have two executive offices. The Minister of State may have a view and like to come back on that. The boundary between those two offices, just like the boundaries between the new directly elected mayor and the councillors, may depend on how things bed down in practice. Again, it is hard to see clarity on how this will roll out.

In particular, the boundary between the two executive officers will depend on a case-by-case scrutiny of the 200 or so references in the Schedule to functions that have not transferred and will, therefore, remain with the director general. In summary, it is difficult to see how this will work in practice. There is perhaps a lack of detail. I accept some detail will have to be worked out. This is the first directly elected mayor of its kind, but the territory for the directly elected mayor will be difficult to map out for that person, whoever is elected. The person will have two people snapping at their heels, namely the CEO, now to be the director general, and those staff on the one hand and on the other the directly elected councillors and their indirectly elected cathaoirleach or first counsellor, as the person will now be called. Our concerns, therefore, are first about how this new directly elected mayor will map out the territory between these two different entities. It will be difficult for that individual.

We are concerned that the Bill cannot be said to have taken on board the substance of much of the recommendations that were made in response to the general scheme. We accept that there are some measures, such as the establishment of a mayoral and government consultative forum and the provision for a mayoral programme that will be equivalent to a programme for Government, which are welcome. We welcome the advisory and implementation committee. Of course, Limerick will have its Project Ireland 2040 delivery board, including a transport subgroup. However, there is a lack of clarity on the terms of reference of the delivery board.

It seems that the Government has failed to incorporate the additional powers recommended by the implementation advisory group, IAG. It seems that the Bill is much more focused on running the election and more technical details around the election of the mayor, amendments to existing legislation to account for the mayor and other administrative changes in proposals. As I said, we would like to hear from the Minister of State about the substantive powers to be attributed to the new directly elected mayor and the reasons why recommendations from the IAG, councillors and civil society have not been implemented more fully.

I have been asked to seek clarification on the Government's thinking of the timing of the mayoral elections. Various local groups have sought information on the rationale for not holding the local and mayoral elections as a stand-alone separate events. What is the thinking around putting them together?

I am conscious that a lot of the detailed debate will have to take place on Committee and Report Stages because there is so little in the Bill on the mayor's powers that it is hard to give robust feedback. We would like to hear from the Minister of State about issues such as staffing. Will the new mayor be able to appoint his or her own staff, apart from the special adviser that is provided for, or will staff be assigned? That information would be very important in practice for the functioning of the mayor.

Does the Minister of State envisage problems where there is conflict, such as where the annual budget prepared by the director general will not reflect the priorities of the directly elected mayor? How will that be worked out? Again, the Minister of State might like to address that. Without greater powers over the budget, will we see the same lack of direction that already tends to exist at local authority level? What role will other organisations have, in addition to Limerick City and County Council, in making representations to the Limerick mayoral and government consultative forum?

Of course, it does not need to be said, but I should have said at the outset that Limerick is rich with wonderful civil society and business and workers' organisations. I thank Limerick Chamber of Commerce and the Limerick Council of Trade Unions, with which I have engaged, because there is a huge wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience among the members of those bodies and so many more. Given that we have waited so long for this Bill, why the silence on the powers? Why the significant divergence from what was recommended by the IAG? Limerick Chamber of Commerce and others have raised these concerns.

We will reserve the right to bring forward amendments to the Bill on Committee Stage, but we look forward to the response of the Minister of State on Second Stage. When people in Limerick voted to take back control and ensure a more closely democratically elected civic leader for their city, they did not vote for ambiguity or half measures. At the most basic level, they voted for a meaningful office and directly elected mayor who would have real power to implement change and an office that would take back power that national government has accumulated over many years, harking back to the old British model of centralised governance.

We are concerned that the Custom House appears unwilling to cede substantive power and influence to the directly elected mayor, yet the people of Limerick were promised the ability and resources to deliver their local services and infrastructure. We are concerned that the current proposals do not give the directly elected mayor sufficient power to do this. A failure to fulfil the expectation that people now have in Limerick would amount to a kind of disrespect to the people who voted in good faith to have a directly elected mayor.

Let us not forget that vote, and I know the Minister of State will not forget this, was in 2019 so people in Limerick might well have expected to see the implementation of that vote sooner. It is unfortunate that it has taken so long.

I reiterate that we would like to see a package of reforms so that this would only be the first step in a series of reforms to give directly elected councillors more meaningful power. I make a particular appeal for the city of Dublin in which my constituency lies. Our capital city should also have the sort of metropolitan mayor we have seen rolled out so successfully in our neighbouring jurisdiction of Great Britain. I hope we will see Limerick become a good litmus test and a good model for other cities in Ireland to follow.

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