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

I will speak to a number of the amendments. In amendment No 30, we refer to removing “the Mayor as the Mayor considers appropriate” and substituting it with “the D’Hondt system”. It is very important to have this. We referenced it in the context of local democracy. It is important there is a democratic element to the selection of members of the Limerick mayoral advisory and implementation committee. The current wording is too broad and has the potential to allow a mayor to just select councillors from his or her party or a bunch of Independents. The introduction of a democratic selection process is important to ensure that all elected councillors have equality of opportunity to participate in the forum as we do in Oireachtas committees, as was said my colleague, Deputy Mitchell.

Amendment No. 31 proposes to insert after subsection (4) the following: “including, but not limited to, businesses, trade unions, Community and Voluntary Sector organisations,”. This is to make sure that we include a wider group of public opinion to these positions ensuring that the community, unions and employers are all represented. There was no mention of unions in the first draft of the Bill.

Amendment No. 32 proposes to insert "subject to the approval of elected members,” after “time”. Again, this is a necessary amendment to ensure the position of local councillors is respected. It ensures that they give approval to the dissolution of the advisory committee. It is not just that. It is important when we talk about the new mayor that we protect, as far as possible, the role of local councillors, which has been diminished over the years.

See this speech in context