Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 12, line 31, to delete “3 years” and substitute “2 years”.

Unfortunately, I was in Strasbourg when the Second Stage of this Bill was being discussed. However, my colleague, Senator Warfield, did express a degree of frustration that many of us in Limerick feel with regard to the lack of ambition regarding the content of the Bill. I say that respectfully. I acknowledge that fact that the Minister of State has worked hard to get this Bill through in a timely fashion. I have to admit that we are very puzzled about why it has taken four years, but I acknowledge that since the Minister of State came into office, he has been trying to push it as hard as he can.

What has not happened from our perspective, however, is that I do not think the people of Limerick want a mayor who has effectively very few additional functional powers, and I am afraid that is what we have ended up with. Rather than get into a back-and-forth about that, because we will be dealing with a number of amendments as we go through the afternoon, what is particularly important is that the Minister of State takes on board the expressions of concern, not just from Sinn Féin but from a range of others, both in the Dáil and Seanad.

My colleague, Deputy Quinlivan, was very clear on this. We really felt that this Bill had the opportunity to offer so much more to a democratically elected mayor that was not gifted. Indeed, I gather that one of the key reasons for that is that existing Departments just did not want to delegate powers to an elected mayor of Limerick. That is the crux of a lot of this. It is therefore in that context that we are asking for the review to be brought forward from three years to two years. We feel there is not enough scope here for a democratically elected mayor to really make his or her impact to the fullest extent. We were afraid in that respect then it would denigrate the position in terms of people's enthusiasm for it. The very least we ask the Minister of State to do, and I have to echo Deputy Quinlivan's frustrations that amendments were not taken on board in the Dáil, is to make this very simple change that rather than waiting three years, we have a review of the position after two years. The reason for that, which I hope the Minister of State will appreciate, is that we do it in a timely fashion so that by the time the second mayoral election comes around, that review will have been completed and, more important, legislative changes made to enhance the role of the mayor. It is a simple change. It would show an awful lot of goodwill from the Minister of State if he was willing to take it on board. Let us move this review forward by just 12 months.