Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak about the position of mayor of Limerick city and county and I acknowledge my learned colleague Deputy O'Donoghue, whose area we are talking about. I have serious reservations as to the costing of the mayor for the county. From where will the money come? Will the Government put up its hands and say it will fully fund the mayor for the five years of the term or will the local council have to pay? Obviously, the money is coming from taxpayers, so it has to be fierce accountable. Given that the previous Government - the same crowd - got rid of local town councils, it is a little rich to think the Government is now trying to set up a bit of democracy in one county. I have serious concerns about how this is going to be rolled out but I have to respect the democratic decision of the people of Limerick. They made that democratic decision and I have to accept anything that has been made in democracy, even though I may not always agree with it. What are the exact powers this mayor will have? Is he or she going to be kissing, hugging and waving out of the back windows of a car? Is that what there will be in Limerick, or will there be someone with a bit of bite in them who will deliver for the people of Limerick county and city?

My worry is that this will become a political football and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will be kicking it to see whether they can have a mayor with their tag on him or her. If that is the case, are we going to be in the same situation we are in at this time, where Ministers are more or less feeding information to their own politicians in constituencies, saying Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil got the money for them? Even if this mayor ends up being a Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil mayor, although we do not know that becuase this is a great country and the people will be able to make that decision, will he or she be elected as a mayor for the people?

That is what we need and it is an example that needs to be led from Leinster House, but it has not been led from here for many years. I have seen how Ministers work. It can be quite poor, to be honest. Maybe that is because I am in opposition and if I were in government, maybe I would think it was a great idea, but I do not think I would. I think I would play it as fair as I could if I were in a ministerial position, but when Ministers visit constituencies, I see the way they work. They call a couple of their own local politicians and that is it. They cannot help it. It is seldom that you will see openness and transparency, so I would be very worried about the constitution or the rules and regulations that will be laid out whereby whoever is elected, if this goes ahead as it seems it will, the mayor will represent everybody in Limerick, regardless of whether they share that person's politics. If that does not happen, we will be back in the same charade as we have in the case of a lot of Ministers. That does not apply to everyone but to quite a lot.

As I said, Phil Hogan did a hatchet job on town councils and the Government of the day, comprising Fine Gael and the Labour Party, patted him on the back and accepted it. Only one town did not lose its town council, namely, Clonakilty in west Cork, which stood up to him and still has a town council. I wish the mayor of Clonakilty, Paddy McCarthy, and those who serve the people of Clonakilty voluntarily - Anthony McDermott and many more - well. The Government should be concentrating its efforts on bringing back town councils. I think that is in the programme for Government somewhere, or has it been forgotten and has the Government decided to powerwash out that along with everything else? Town councils delivered for people in their local communities and I still hear that from some people, who say nothing has happened in their area since the town council has gone. They say they have no one to talk to. The Government needs to look at that.

The boundaries will have to be laid out as to where the mayoral position will stop and start.

We have been talking about boundaries and I was very disappointed at the way the Electoral Commission dealt with Cork South-West, a constituency that has grown hugely. We have an area that is, literally, one town, of Ballineen and Enniskeane. Ballineen is in Cork South-West and the town that is attached to it is in Cork North-West. They are totally lost to the political system out there. This includes places such as Newcestown and Castletownkenneigh, north of Dunmanway. These are in west Cork and they have been taken out of west Cork previously, prior to me bringing it here to the Dáil. I may have been the only one who put forward a submission months ago - I might be careful of that, but certainly on Cork - to the Electoral Commission. I had a reply and acknowledgement, but we got nowhere. Sadly, there were no changes. I believe that the commission said that Cork South-West on the map was a bit like Cuba. Cuba could be looked at too. West Cork should also have been looked at, and these areas should not have been excluded. It was a big blow to the democracy and for the people of those areas.

We have talked about doing away with town councils and the Government has taken away a lot of the powers. My big concern is the councils and will the councils lose powers here? They have lost so many powers. The county managers seem to be making the decisions. It would seem the councillors must just go along with it, with a nod and a wink. Are we going to be in a similar situation where the county manager and the mayor will make decisions for Limerick city and county? Will the council just hear about it afterwards? That is an astonishing situation they find themselves in if that is going to be the case. I would appreciate if maybe the Minister of State might get an opportunity to answer some of those questions later on.

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