Results 2,081-2,100 of 25,975 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: We can discuss it separately. I will respond to it if the Deputy wishes.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Outside the mayor’s office, it has always been the case that the staff fall under the director general. We cannot change that. Staff in the mayor's office are appointed by the director general but on a practical level, the mayor will always be involved in working with human resources in the council on their appointment. We will look at that simple aspect before Report Stage. ...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: I was referencing the second amendment, not the Deputy’s amendment.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: That was referenced.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: I take the point the Deputy raises about the mayor's office and it is something I have given an undertaking to look at before Report Stage. Deputy Quinlivan can push the amendment all right but in the spirit of co-operation, I am asking that he give me some latitude to come forward on Report Stage in respect of that consultation with the mayor on the appointment of staff in the mayoral office.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Legislation is open to change and we are here to discuss it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: I am not in any way questioning that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Equally the Deputy must take my bona fides on it. I am trying to work on this. The Deputy is correct that we have to get this right. There will be a review mechanism and I have seen that many of the moves to a directly elected mayor have failed because they have gone too quickly. I want to look at section 18 in the context of the mayor being consulted on the appointment of the four staff...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Remember that it has always been the case that the director general was over staff and they are staff within the council so I have to be conscious of them as well.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: All I am saying is that the point-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: The substantive issue is that on both sides we want to get to a point where the mayor would be involved and that staff would be appointed who the mayor would be comfortable with.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: I move amendment No. 14: In page 16, to delete lines 10 to 13. These amendments are linked and relate to the ethics framework which should apply to the special adviser to the mayor. As it stands, the Bill provides for a different ethics framework for the mayor than for the special adviser. The mayor is subject to the ethics framework in Part 15 of the Local Government Act 2001, while...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: I move amendment No. 15: In page 16, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “(a) in section 13, by the insertion, after subsection (1), of the following subsections: “(1A) Subject to subsection (2), a person to whom subsection (1) applies, other than a person referred to in paragraph (b) or (e) of that subsection, is disqualified from being elected to the office...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: I move amendment No. 16: In page 16, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(c) in section 128A, by the substitution, in the definition of “chief officer”, of “section 128D(1)(b)” for “section 128E(1)”,”. These are all minor or typographical amendments. Amendment No. 16 is a minor technical amendment required to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Amendments Nos. 18 and 19 are closely linked and propose changes to sections 22 and 24. Respectively, these sections deal with the election of members of Limerick City and County Council to hold two offices that will be created following the Bill's enactment – the príomh chomhairleoir and leas-phríomh chomhairleoir, the speaker and the deputy speaker of the house. These...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: One of them is the special adviser, appointed independently, and that is a defined external post on which it will be up to the mayor to decide.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Those staff will work in the mayor's office but, ultimately, the executive function for staff will remain with the director general. Can we take it that we will look at it again later? I take the Deputy's point. A lot of issues are involved here. Ultimately, in practice, there will be no way someone can be appointed to the mayor's office without the mayor being involved in the process.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Will the Deputy allow us to come back to it? If we give a commitment to looking at it again and coming forward with something on Report Stage, can we work with that?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: Only with respect to staff in the mayor's office.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Kieran O'Donnell: I move amendment No. 17: In page 17, to delete line 5 and substitute the following: “(e) in section 182— (i) in subsection (1)(a), by the insertion of “and from being elected to or holding the office of Mayor of Limerick” after “local authority”, and (ii) in subsection (2)— (I) by the insertion of “or acts as Mayor of Limerick...