Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----or many of the sizeable provincial towns which used to have mayors. I ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, to come before the House and make some alterations to the Act introduced by the former Minister. If a local authority chooses to refer to its chairman as "Mayor", that should be allowed. It is very hard for visitors to understand why they are being introduced to somebody who has a title such as "Cathaoirleach of the region". It smacks of North Korea rather than the democracy we have become used to. The title of mayor may have had some English medieval connotations at one time, but it is now universally accepted. Every region in France, no matter how big or small, has a mayor, and it makes a lot more sense for visitors to be introduced to the mayor of a town rather than to someone with a nebulous title that has about 40 syllables and is difficult to pronounce.