Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chance to speak on this Bill. Anyone would recognise that a shift to move powers from unelected individuals into a democratically elected office is a positive thing. However, that power then needs to be accountable to the people who put those people into the position to make decisions. We think this Bill is a missed opportunity to undo the effects of Ireland's weak and wanting local democracy. This Bill has been drafted in response to a plebiscite held in 2019 in which the people of Limerick narrowly agreed to a directly elected mayor, while Cork and Waterford rejected it.

If this Bill passes Second Stage, People Before Profit will submit amendments that will ensure the people who put a mayor into power also have the power to remove him or her, instead of this power being solely in the hands of elected councillors. That accountability is crucial and the people must be allowed it. They should be able to trigger a recall by means of a verified petition. People Before Profit will also pursue an amendment to link the mayor's salary to the average income of those who dwell in Limerick. As it stands, it is set at the same level as a Minister of State, namely, €135,000 per year. That is three times the median annual earnings of the people of Limerick, according to CSO statistics. The total cost of the office is currently at €300,000 and this includes special advisers and a dedicated chauffeur. We believe we need a mayor who is a city leader, understands how the people live, lives like them and does not live in an ivory tower. He or she must be driven by a desire to make Limerick a better and more equal place to live rather than being a celebrity or a political careerist on a bloated salary.

In 2019, a report published by the FÓRSA trade union highlighted how austerity, the centralisation of powers through services like Uisce Éireann, the privatisation of social housing through the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, the privatisation of refuse services, the outsourcing of crucial work like housing maintenance and the haemorrhaging of tradesmen and tradeswomen employed by the local authority has moved Ireland to the bottom of the European local democracy index. This report calls for the return and the expansion of the town council system, increased revenue and funding powers with parallel systems of accountability and transparency to move the relative level of local authority-managed public spending towards the European average, an immediate end to outsourcing of council housing maintenance and a shift to a new local authority public-led housing model. People Before Profit will be looking for amendments that call for real powers to be transferred to the office of mayor from the current unelected CEO position and with oversight from the council. As it stands, the proposal contained in the Bill keeps developments in the county within the constraints given by central government and these constraints lead to a model of service delivery that involve housing, waste collection and roads and transport relying on outsourcing to keep these services off balance sheet. These are the core services that should be developed as collective public goods.

Limerick has a proud tradition. During the 1919 general strike, the Limerick Soviet was established by the people for the people and the people ran the city in their interest. To give that sort of control back to people again we need much more than just this mayor Bill and a few statutory bodies. It means bringing the voice of workers, carers and families into the decision-making rooms and hearing not just the voices of the business community and its owners and representatives.

It would be remiss of me, having referenced the FÓRSA research, to not mention the current embargo FÓRSA has implemented on dealing with local and public representatives. I support the FÓRSA action. Some 85% of the workers across local authorities voted to take this industrial action out of utter frustration because a process that should have been dealt with long ago has ground to a halt. We are calling on the LGMA to sit down with FÓRSA and sort out why the grade drift that has happened to thousands and thousands of local authority workers during austerity has been allowed to continue. It has been sorted out in the HSE and in higher education. This work-to-rule, which is impacting on all of us, but mostly on the workers themselves, needs to be sorted. I call on the Minister of State's office to engage fully with that job evaluation and if necessary for the Minister to intervene in the process. That will at least begin some kind of democratic intervention by people in this House beyond what is the utter disgrace of these workers being left with a pay drift that has gone on for years.

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