Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Regarding Senator Byrne's comments, I fundamentally disagree with restricting the candidacy of a mayor by requiring him or her to have local government experience. Going down the route of ruling people out is a slippery slope. The electorate makes its choice from the people who go forward, and I would never agree with limiting people's choice in that regard.

I welcome the Minister of State. This is an exciting period. Whatever happens, he must ensure that he gets the mayoral provision through. It has been played around with for a long time. It would nearly be better now just to get it than to get it 100% right. We can adapt and learn from experience. It is easy to criticise, but I hope to be constructive in my contributions.

People are discussing what powers the mayors will and will not have, but the first time London had a directly elected mayor, the position had very limited powers. It had a clear mandate from the people, however, and woe betide the official or Minister who does not listen to a mayor with such a democratic mandate. While I want to see mayors having real powers, I will probably not get overly exercised about them getting those powers the first time around. I am more anxious to succeed in establishing the post. It would be difficult for a CEO, Minister or the head of the National Transport Authority not to listen to a directly elected mayor from Cork, Limerick or Waterford who had set out his or her vision for that city.

I am jealous that it is Cork, Limerick and Waterford. I was one of the councillors who campaigned for many years for a directly elected mayor of Dublin. I am disappointed that we will not get one now. Dublin is being hard done by. I apologise to the Chamber, but I feel passionately about my city and its four local authorities. The Minister of State asked where the boundary would be. It would be the GAA boundary. We support the same team. It is the four local authorities. That is what I would like to see as the boundary. It is a mixture of city and rural. There are still rural areas and a farming community left in County Dublin. I still believe that a mayor can represent people like that without being tied to a single geographical electoral area. The mayor would be as important to the city centre as to Tallaght, Swords and Balbriggan, which are key areas of the city. This approach has been proven. Many have said that, if there were a directly elected mayor of Dublin, he or she would only worry about the city centre, but that has not happened in other cities. In light of where the electorate lives, a mayor who only concentrated on the city centre would be a silly one because he or she would probably not get re-elected.

Dublin faces important climate change challenges in terms of transport and developing a carbon-neutral city. My good friend, Councillor Dermot Lacey, constantly points out that 56 agencies deal with traffic in the Dublin area. Can that continue? Can there really be joined-up thinking in that situation? Regarding housing, a cross-city plan is required. Housing needs to be built on State lands and driven by a single voice.

We have seen the development of strategic development zones, SDZs, one of which - Poolbeg west - is in my constituency. We need a driver for that. It entails 3,500 homes, 900 of which should be social and affordable housing. We do not have a voice for it driving it now, though, and a deal done in 2017 regarding the 900 units has still not been delivered on. A mayor of Dublin would have that voice.

Cities are economic drivers and important to their regions. That is why Waterford, Cork and Limerick are as important as Dublin when it comes to mayors.

The Minister of State made some interesting points. It was difficult for him to deal with all of issues involved in a speech for which he was only given eight minutes. It is proposed that the elected mayors have a similar relationship with local authority chief executives as a Minister has with a Secretary General in a Department. The latter is also the gatekeeper for Government policy and can send a memo to the Cabinet on a change to it. I was fortunate enough to be the leader of the Labour Party group in the city alliance in Dublin City Council. We developed a five-year programme for Dublin city which was the council’s policy. It was put to it to be voted on.