Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

How can we talk about Limerick City and County Council without including the elected members? We cannot. Equally, in the spirit of co-operation, it is important to include the officials on the council as well, and also to include the mayor.

Up to now we have have a two-pillar system consisting of the elected members and the CEO, manager, or whatever term one wants to use. It will be a three-pillar system. We will have the elected members, the director general, similar to the Secretary General of a Department, and then we will have the mayor.

I was absolutely determined in the legislation not to interfere in any way with the reserved powers of the elected members. I have maintained them. What we have done is devolved powers from the CEO to the mayor. I am adamant on that. I will go through the notes and then we can come back to the point.

I accept the intention of the amendment but section 7(2) caters for that and offers more. I assure the Senator that the elected members will be included in the consultation. Let me reassure Members that this is absolutely within the provision as currently drafted. They are key stakeholders in this reform that we are embarking on, and critical to its success. Likewise, the director general and the executive are important. I would not want to exclude any of the three pillars from the review. The provision as it stands includes the elected members.

Amendment No. 7 seeks to look for ways to increase the powers of elected members in general and, in particular, for revenue-raising purposes. A key principle in the development of this Bill is that it does not take away any reserved functions. When I came in, that is something I was adamant would not happen. Once one steps inside the chamber, the reserved powers of councillors remain. The mayor becomes an additional member of the council. It is chaired by one of the members of the other 40 and there is a deputy speaker as well. It is based on the model used in New York. It was the model that was put forward specifically by the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG. Reserved functions are consistent across all local authorities in Ireland and I cannot use this Bill to carve out a special arrangement for Limerick. This Bill is about the mayor. The Senator made reference to the report from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. I visited Strasbourg and spoke to the congress. I acknowledge that we have a centralised system but it is an evolutionary process.The congress welcomed very much the directly-elected mayor Bill coming for Limerick. That was the democratic wish of the people of Limerick. Side by side with that were plebiscites in Waterford and Cork on the same day that they were rejected by 51% to 49%. The proposal for Limerick was accepted by 52% versus 48%. I am also conscious a significant proportion of the population did not vote for it, so it is important this works. Limerick is the test case, so we have to get it right. The democratic wish of the people must be accepted, but we must make certain this works. Cities like Bristol and Liverpool are reversing their decisions on democratically-elected mayors as we speak. It is something we must get right and the fact I am a TD for Limerick City, and proud to be, gives an added dimension for me that we must get this to work.

Regarding the possibility of revenue-raising, this was discussed in the Dáil in the context of the mayor. There is nothing to prevent the mayor considering new sources of income or preparing a report on such matters for consideration by others. That is specifically in the consultative forum section of the Bill. Once again, I am going back to what was put to the people in the plebiscite. For that reason I do not consider it appropriate or necessary to include such provisions in legislation and for that reason I cannot accept either amendment No. 6 or No. 7, or, for the sake of clarity, Nos. 4 or 5.