Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Comhghairdeas, a Aire Stáit. This Bill is really good and represents real progress for local democracy. I congratulate the Minister of State and Senator Maria Byrne on getting us this far.

This Bill excites me as it is a chance for real local democracy and regional balance, and I have long witnessed regional imbalance coming from County Clare. I also think that this new office of mayor is a lot more than being a mayor of a city or county, potentially, and another gold medal around another person's neck, and usually that is a man's neck.

This Bill has huge potential to provide proper regional balance in the mid-west, which is a perfect geographical region to balance out Dublin. We were all reared to believe that all roads lead to Dublin for everything. The new mayoral role is an important stepping stone towards what local government should be. If we want to reverse rural decline and better manage regional development, we need to give more powers and autonomy to local councils, which, of course, starts with funding. In Ireland, only 8% of public spending is done by local government, yet every county councillor and local authority staff member is meant to be able to sort everything out immediately. The creation of a mayor is an opportunity to restore people's faith in local government and local authorities because people have lost some of that faith because, as Senator Byrne said, it is mainly administrative work that takes place at local government level. A mayor would be chosen by the people for the people whereas CEOs, great and all as some of them are although that varies a lot, are not answerable or accessible to anybody. The situation reminds me of "The Wizard of Oz" who was a guy with a big voice sat behind the big radio but he is kind of untouchable and does not really exist in any form that represents the people of the county.

The Bill is a huge opportunity for us to get things right and I hope we can work on some amendments to make it even better. The office of mayor is the norm across Europe. The role works across Europe because mayors have proper powers and proper funding, and an ability to do things.I think the directly elected person being of high stature and having, as the Minister of State said, powers such as a Minister of State has is what regions need. For too long, it has just been up here inside the gates of Leinster House. It is all about lived experience. People in Dublin do not have the lived experience of trying to get a train from where you live in western Ireland. Limerick city is not badly serviced and it has a great new train station, but there is a significant opportunity here.

We can lead the way for other counties to have mayors. It is democratically done. We need to help local government to reinstate the faith that people had in it because everything is being polarised, even the council versus the people. Part of that is the lack of funding. That will change with the mayor. We want a train to Shannon Airport and a lot of money invested properly in the west, as we see a population increase. It cannot all land in Dublin. We want people to live and thrive in rural areas too. This opportunity with the mayor is significant. I have to admit that Limerick seems to have nailed hurling. I think this is an opportunity to nail what it means to have a directly elected mayor for the rest of our country. I thank the Minister of State for his work on this.