Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 11, to delete lines 26 to 29 and substitute the following:

"(8)(a) The Mayor shall not, while holding office as mayor, engage in any trade, profession, vocation or other occupation, whether remunerated or otherwise, which might reasonably be seen to be capable of interfering or to be incompatible with the performance of his or her functions as Mayor.

(b) Furthermore, the Mayor shall not engage in any other type of paid employment during their term of office.".

I also submitted this amendment on Committee Stage. If we want the position of mayor to be truly transformational for local democracy, the position of mayor must be the sole focus of everybody elected. To allow for other employment during the term of office would be a definite signal to the electorate that this is not a role that has much value. If it is to have value, it must be the single focus of any elected mayor and the removal of the opportunity for other trade or occupational opportunities will ensure the integrity of the position is maintained. As the Minister of State will be well aware, when the plebiscite took place in 2019, a similar plebiscite was defeated in Waterford and Cork for reasons. In Limerick, it narrowly passed for reasons. We need to convince those people who did not vote for it, and if we do not enact something like this amendment, we will probably have another problem, going forward. That is the genesis of the amendment.

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