Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the steps his Department has taken to prepare for a referendum on the establishment of a directly elected mayor for Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44866/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Local Government Bill 2013, published on 17 October, provides, in Part 10, for a plebiscite to be held in the administrative areas of the four Dublin local authorities in respect of a directly elected mayor for the Dublin metropolitan area on the same day as the local elections 2014, should the four local authorities concerned pass a resolution in that regard by 31 March 2014.

In anticipation of the Bill's provisions, I wrote to the Lord Mayor of Dublin inviting the Forum or Colloquium being established to assess options for local governance in the Dublin metropolitan area under the leadership of a directly elected mayor and identifying a number of elements which would need to be addressed when developing proposals to be put before the electorate in the plebiscite. A copy of this letter is in the Oireachtas Library. I have asked for the response of the Forum by the end of the year.