Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A directive decision of the people of Limerick in May 2019 opted for a directly elected mayor with executive powers. The people of Limerick voted for a directly elected mayor with executive powers. In this Bill we have a diluted version of what they were expecting. If we look at it on the basis of Limerick - people have spoken in the Chamber today about Limerick being the first city to have a directly elected mayor - we will see that of course it has to be Limerick because we are the first in everything. When we go about something, we can do it right. To do this right, we will have to make amendments to it to make sure it is right because people do not want a diluted version.

We looked at the staffing of the directly elected mayor. He or she can choose one member of staff. Four will be chosen on his or her behalf. We have to look at that. He or she can look for a special adviser. That again is up to the directly elected mayor. The cost of having a directly elected mayor is being covered by the Government, but for how long? After four or five years, will this money come out of the budget for the local authority in Limerick? That has not yet been finalised. It was talked about. When we spoke about it earlier, it was to be looked after for the first two years. I want the timeline. If this comes out of the budget for Limerick, our budget will need to increase.

The directly elected mayor will have €8 million in funding. That is a pittance for the first directly elected mayor. To get water from Limerick to Croom is costing €4 million. Yet the directly elected mayor for Limerick city and county is being given a budget of €8 million. We have 40 elected councillors in Limerick city and county. There are 21 in the city and 19 in the county. All their powers are being depleted even though they are directly elected by the people of Limerick from the areas they represent. All of these people - from the Minister of State's party, Fine Gael, from Fianna Fáil, from Independents and across the board - are directly elected. Yet their powers are being allowed to be depleted year on year. They say what they have for their counties.

Why is the Limerick team so good at hurling? They invested in the infrastructure for the players to make them what they are today. They put in the proper management team and put all the other services around them. That built into what we have today - our four-in-a-row. Hopefully we will have five. That is because of the infrastructure put into the team and the proper management. That is why we can build things in Limerick, with the proper infrastructure.

The Taoiseach was in Foynes during the week at the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum. I welcome his visit and the investment that has been done in Foynes. Then we were in Newcastle West at the running track. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was in Broadford. I have never heard so many Ministers say "rural Ireland". They kept saying that. Every second word out of their mouths was "rural Ireland". The first place they heard the term was here, from the Independents. Now they realise that rural Ireland will take it no more. When they announced the funding in Limerick, which I welcome and I would welcome much more of it, the one thing that they forgot about was the infrastructure. They talked about the next generation of people in Limerick. Fixing up our local halls, which is great and I welcome it, does not provide houses in the area to enable my children and grandchildren and all the children and grandchildren of all the people in County Limerick to come home. We have no infrastructure in Oola, in Hospital or in Foynes. This is why we build. With an €8 million budget for a directly elected mayor, I am not going to get much done in Limerick. If they said €80 million, I would say that is going somewhere along the lines where I can spend it.

The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, is a Limerick man. We need powers for our councillors to make sure we can get our infrastructure going. We need powers for the directly elected mayor. The executive cannot just go into one area. It has to cover Limerick city and county, with the funding we need to make sure that Limerick can grow into the place I know it will become. Unless the basic funding is provided through the models for infrastructure, sewerage and water, I cannot rebuild Limerick. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, said to me the other day that I was saying that nothing is being built in rural Ireland. I said to the Minister of State, as I will say now on the record, that he is here to deliver because I am going to make him deliver. That is my job. No matter what he delivers, I am going to make him deliver it and more. He was elected in 2003, but it is only now that he is delivering because he is being made to deliver. For the people of Limerick, I will make every Deputy and Minister deliver for us. For the mayor in Limerick, I want more powers so that he or she can deliver for the people he or she represents. I want more of a budget for the people of Limerick so that we can make sure for the whole of Ireland that we have a model such that if they want to have a mayor in Dublin, they can have a mayor in Dublin. It will be built on the excellence that Limerick will have when we have a directly elected mayor. What we want is more money and more powers for our local councillors.

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