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

I understand the broad thrust of these amendments to section 17 from the Civil Engagement Group is to ensure the mayor would not be a member of the council or have voting rights and also that the mayor is accountable to the council. I appreciate the Senator's rationale. However, it is at odds with the report of the independent advisory group chaired by Tim O'Connor, which the Government accepted and is implementing in this Bill.

I confirm the elected council will retain its primacy, if that is the concern, and that does not change with this Bill. That is something I have reiterated. The chamber and the members retain all their reserved powers. The mayor's powers are coming in the main from the devolution of powers from the CEO to the mayor. The council will have an important governance role over the performance of the mayor. The mayor is accountable to the elected council on their mayoral executive functions. There are formal structures to ensure this, including through the mayor’s report and mayor’s questions at plenary council meetings. In addition, the provisions of the Local Government Act in relation to the council’s oversight of the chief executive will apply in respect of the mayor, as set out in Schedule 3 of the Bill. I therefore confirm the legislation already makes the necessary provision for that accountability and oversight. On reserved functions, the Bill provides that the mayor will be an ex officio member with voting rights and in this way would act as part of the collective council and would not override it or supersede it. Importantly, the Bill provides that the mayor will not chair the council; rather that is the role of the príomh-chomhairleoir. That came out of the implementation group. It is the same model as in New York. Once again, the current chamber remains intact. The chamber becomes 40 plus one.

There also appears to be some conflict within some of the amendments proposed. Amendment No. 14 provides that the mayor would not be a member of the council, but would have the ability to move motions at meetings of the council. Amendment No. 15 provides that the mayor would not be a member of the council but would have voting rights. Both of these proposals would cause confusion and uncertainty in the role.

The deletion and replacement of the entire section as proposed also means that an important provision in section 17(6) is removed. That subsection provides that the removal of elected members under section 216 of the Local Government Act 2001 will not prevent the mayor from carrying out the executive functions.

On the basis of these considerations I unable to accept these amendments. The structure is very simple. The mayor is elected by the people and he or she becomes a member of the chamber as 40 plus one. There is the devolution of roles from the CEO to the mayor, so the mayor brings the budget and all the development plans. He or she is responsible to the members in the chamber like the CEO is at the moment. There are checks and balances everywhere. What we have is a very balanced approach and once again it is about ensuring the mayor brings added value and there is no confusion. On that basis, while I note the genuineness of the amendments I cannot accept them.