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

I will not take two hours, in fairness. I wanted to make some comments on the Bill. We have been through this for a number of years. We have been waiting for it for almost five years so it is not remiss of me to ask for a couple of minutes to speak on the Bill.

I wanted to speak on a couple of amendments, but I can condense it all to one amendment here. As I have said, we believe the Bill as it stands falls short of meaningful change in local government and offers us an elected mayor with only limited functions and responsibilities. It certainly is not the beacon of hope or progress that other local authorities would aspire to, unfortunately. The continual delays in bringing forward the legislation, coupled with the lack of real powers for the elected mayor will only serve to dampen support for the role. The plebiscite in 2019 was defeated in Cork and Waterford and was only narrowly carried in Limerick. Unfortunately, there is nothing in this legislation that would persuade those who were sceptical then to support the position now. Before the first mayor in this new office has been elected, we face a challenge in ensuring a level of public interest in the establishment of the office and the election of somebody to this office. There needs to be a public information campaign to make sure people are aware a new role is being established. While I welcome the fact we are finally at the end stage of the Bill, four and half years after the proposal was voted on, there are crucial functions that were not included or were fudged to such a degree that the role does not reflect what was promised before or since the plebiscite.

I had previously submitted a number of amendments and outlined some of my party’s concerns with the Bill.

Sinn Féin proposed 11 amendments that if adopted would have given the role of mayor some real power and several additional functions devolved from central government. Unfortunately these were rejected. I am not sure yet whether the amendments from the Seanad will be accepted by the Government. However, we must now accept the watered-down version of what should and could have been the most fundamental change to local government in decades. Proposals such as the mayor having the authority to select his or her own staff from existing council staff, the adaptation of additional functions that included a crucial oversight role in the regeneration programme and the opportunity for local councillors to propose amendments to the mayoral programme were all rejected by the Government.

As I said previously, the Bill we are left with is a victory for the County and City Management Association, which never wanted this new position. However, unfortunately the most important powers and functions will remain under the authority of the newly created director general, a position that is simply a new title for the chief executive role.

The implementation advisory group made several suggestions around devolved functions from central government. Very few, if any, are contained in the Bill in its current form. This is a missed opportunity to enhance local government and for Limerick to act as an example for other local governments to follow. The legislation does not offer the opportunity for those ambitions to be met. However, after years of delay, the people will vote on this position in June so at least that is welcome. Hopefully this is a role that can be enhanced and developed over the years. I look forward to the Bill being enacted finally. I look forward to the election in June. I hope another government, or different governments, can enhance the role going forward.

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