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

The Senator is correct, in that the report has to be put before both Houses of the Oireachtas, which is the correct approach. It will obviously feed into the committee system as well.

The Bill is true to what the people voted on, in term of powers. That is my abiding principle. The mayor will now bring forward a budget of €600 million to his or her colleagues in the chamber. He or she may well bring forward all development plans currently brought forward by the CEO. Furthermore, in Limerick and other areas, there are a number of DACs, such as Limerick 2030 and so forth. They currently report to the CEO and will now instead report to the mayor.

For the first time ever, the mayor has statutory rights and powers to bring all stakeholders in the region together in terms of the mayoral programme. Furthermore, the mayor can bring forward whatever stakeholders he or she wishes in respect of project Limerick 2030. He or she will automatically have a plenary session twice a year with the Government of the day, and at any other times either party wishes it to happen.. Under the original Bill, that was at the behest of the Minister. I have changed that.

In terms of overall powers, the Bill is reasonably good, sound and very much true to what the public voted on. If the mayor and council push for a review to be carried out before three years and three months, I expect that would happen. The Bill is positive and is an activation measure. It is not about restricting the growth of the role of the mayor. It is a start.There is no reason the review could not be carried out prior to that period, but it was recommended in the IALG report after careful consideration and I would not like it to be so restrictive that, if it were done within two years, the first two years would become about the review. I want the first number of years to be about the mayor getting the mayoral programme up and running. They are getting €8 million for that from the Exchequer, which will bring up to €40 million in additional Government funding to Limerick. That is a very important point.

Accordingly, I am not minded to accept the amendment. I understand where it is coming from and I accept the Senator’s bona fides on it but, on balance, I am comfortable with what we are proposing in the legislation.