Dublin's first Mayor to be elected next Summer

[Yixian]

Any news on this?

The sooner this happens the better.

[Spacewagon]

We need a Giuliani-type role with powers over policing. He cleaned up New York through zero-tolerance - a policy FF promised in 1997 but welched on thereafter.

Guiliani didn't clean up New York through extra stringent policing.

Legalised abortion from the early 70's had a bigger effect

[Yixian]

Joe plz.

[cllr]

“A Fresh Approach to the Governance of Dublin”

16th November 2009

Councillor Dermot Lacey



Dublin needs to run Dublin” – that is the essential theory behind the campaign I have been pushing for quite some time.

The interference in Dublin by disinterested Bureaucracies and Quangos has been enormously damaging and quite simply Dublin deserves better.
The present situation in which more than 40 bodies have responsibility for Traffic is perhaps the most obvious example of this. But I could go on.

In that respect I genuinely welcome the various statements from John Gormley that an election for a directly elected Mayor of Dublin will take place next year. However at this stage that is all it is – a statement of intent –not an Act of the Oireachtas.

Dublin Needs a Voice.

Many believe that we need more than the simple change to a directly elected Mayor and they are right. However the promised election is in my view an important step forward and we should grasp it and not carp about it.

However we do need to ask: What sort of Mayor we want? To whom will he or she be accountable? What sort of powers will they have? What area will they cover and so on?

Unfortunately the debate – if you could call it that – to date, has centred on the usual round up of “media luvvies” whom the “commentariat” deem to be suitable candidates and the salary envisaged for the job.

I have said before that the proposed salary is disgracefully and unnecessarily high. It is a distraction from what should be a debate about the role of a Mayor. There is no need for a €200,000+ salary for the Mayor, just as in all probability there is no need for it for Government Ministers.
The essential financial element is that the Mayor would have the power and resources to do the job, and the commitment to do it effectively. Setting the salary at that of a Dáil Deputy or Senator would be for me a far more appropriate approach.

I want to see a Mayor of Dublin and for Dublin who wants to do the job irrespective of the salary. Quite simply it is a job worth doing.

As we come out of the Local Elections campaign there is a growing recognition that our current system of Local Government requires renewal and reform. Dublin can no longer be run as it is. A plethora of unaccountable agencies, over 120 part time Councillors, annually rotating Mayors and Cathaorlaigh is not the best way forward for Dublin.

Clearly too is the fact that Local Government is directed by City and County Managers unofficially but in reality answerable to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the permanent officials therein. This must end.

Two of the arguments used against the introduction of a directly elected Mayor are cost and “celebrity” candidates. In my view both are bogus. Properly structured, a newly elected Mayor, working with the already existing, though hopefully enhanced, Dublin Regional Authority, will see the need for many of the existing agencies reduced and or incorporated into the Mayoral structure with significant savings. On the “celebrity” candidate issue the answer is simple – we live in a Democracy – let the people decide. I have great faith that they will decide intelligently.

While the detail of any reform is extensive, the essentials are not. If it is to be in any way meaningful reform must include:

* An Independent source of funding for Local Authorities - not subject to the whims of the Department of the Environment.

The issue of financing of Local Government is central to any reform. At present, Dublin City Council is losing out on millions of Euro every year (€28m for 2008 alone) from rates which the Government has waived its responsibility to pay. Every Local Authority in our Country has been denied monies due to it in lieu of the abolition of Domestic Rates as well as the costs of Benchmarking and yet there has not been a squeak from the usual commentators about this.
I have previously proposed that a National Forum on the Financing of Local Government should be established as a matter of urgency.
The Forum would draw its membership from the main Political Parties, the three Councillor Representative Bodies and the Social Partners. It would be given six months to a year to agree an approach that would provide sufficient funding on a nationally agreed basis and that would some degree in local flexibility as to appropriate local fund raising.
* Reform of the City and County Managers Act, creating a new post of Chief Executive Officer – accountable to the relevant Local Authority and recruited by the Public Appointments Commission.

* Real controls and limitations on electoral spending at local elections and an ethical framework that is robust and just.

* A directly elected Mayor of Dublin with a five year term and accountable to an enhanced Dublin Regional Authority. In that context I believe that those who advance the case of a directly elected Lord Mayor solely for the City are wrong. It is the Dublin region that needs such political leadership.

* Extending the role of the Dublin Regional Authority –renaming it the Dublin Regional Assembly and making it the body to which the directly elected Mayor would be accountable.
The powers and responsibilities of the Assembly, working with the Mayor, would include:
1) Land Use Planning and Strategic Development.
2) Traffic and Transport Co-ordination – it would be the Dublin Transport Authority.
3) Social and Affordable Housing - it would replace the existing Affordable Housing Partnership in the Dublin area.
4) Dublin Bay, Waterways and Mountains.
5) Economic Development and Enterprise Promotion.


The Assembly would also have a co-ordinating and/or monitoring role in relation to County wide services provided by agencies such as the HSE, VEC, Enterprise Ireland, Policing and relations with other Regional Authorities and relevant bodies etc.
As Bertie Ahern has declared his interest, let me declare mine. While I am interested in contesting for this real job I am far more interested in having a debate and shaping the legislation before it is enacted. In short I want those of us interested in the future of Dublin to actively seek to shape these proposed measures before it is too late.
Some people believe that the role of Local Government is to implement the views and policies of the so-called Department of the Environment and Local Government. It is not. It is my job as a Dublin City Councillor to do all that is best for this City and its citizens. It is my job to stand up for Dublin; not to regurgitate the failed views and policies imposed on our City from the Customs House.
Introducing the direct election of longer term and directly elected Mayors is not the panacea for all our problems but it would be a major starting point. Quite simply the people whom we are meant to serve deserve better than the current situation which suits no one except the Mandarins in the Custom House and the temporary Ministerial Masters. It is time to fight back and to Stand Up for Real Local Government and to Stand up for Dublin. A campaign for a directly elected Mayor will give us a chance to do just that. Lets do it.

[Yixian]

At this point I hardly even care who gets the job, Dublin just needs a central figure who can focus all of the already announced projects going on in the city.

The sooner the better, seriously, look at integrated ticketing - why should that take 10 years to implement?!

Are elections actually scheduled or what?

Like London, Dublin needs a directly elected, powerful mayor who can block the culchie influence on the city.

[The_Big_Fellow]

“A Fresh Approach to the Governance of Dublin”

16th November 2009

Councillor Dermot Lacey



Dublin needs to run Dublin” – that is the essential theory behind the campaign I have been pushing for quite some time.

The interference in Dublin by disinterested Bureaucracies and Quangos has been enormously damaging and quite simply Dublin deserves better.
The present situation in which more than 40 bodies have responsibility for Traffic is perhaps the most obvious example of this. But I could go on.

In that respect I genuinely welcome the various statements from John Gormley that an election for a directly elected Mayor of Dublin will take place next year. However at this stage that is all it is – a statement of intent –not an Act of the Oireachtas.

Dublin Needs a Voice.

Many believe that we need more than the simple change to a directly elected Mayor and they are right. However the promised election is in my view an important step forward and we should grasp it and not carp about it.

However we do need to ask: What sort of Mayor we want? To whom will he or she be accountable? What sort of powers will they have? What area will they cover and so on?

Unfortunately the debate – if you could call it that – to date, has centred on the usual round up of “media luvvies” whom the “commentariat” deem to be suitable candidates and the salary envisaged for the job.

I have said before that the proposed salary is disgracefully and unnecessarily high. It is a distraction from what should be a debate about the role of a Mayor. There is no need for a €200,000+ salary for the Mayor, just as in all probability there is no need for it for Government Ministers.
The essential financial element is that the Mayor would have the power and resources to do the job, and the commitment to do it effectively. Setting the salary at that of a Dáil Deputy or Senator would be for me a far more appropriate approach.

I want to see a Mayor of Dublin and for Dublin who wants to do the job irrespective of the salary. Quite simply it is a job worth doing.

As we come out of the Local Elections campaign there is a growing recognition that our current system of Local Government requires renewal and reform. Dublin can no longer be run as it is. A plethora of unaccountable agencies, over 120 part time Councillors, annually rotating Mayors and Cathaorlaigh is not the best way forward for Dublin.

Clearly too is the fact that Local Government is directed by City and County Managers unofficially but in reality answerable to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the permanent officials therein. This must end.

Two of the arguments used against the introduction of a directly elected Mayor are cost and “celebrity” candidates. In my view both are bogus. Properly structured, a newly elected Mayor, working with the already existing, though hopefully enhanced, Dublin Regional Authority, will see the need for many of the existing agencies reduced and or incorporated into the Mayoral structure with significant savings. On the “celebrity” candidate issue the answer is simple – we live in a Democracy – let the people decide. I have great faith that they will decide intelligently.

While the detail of any reform is extensive, the essentials are not. If it is to be in any way meaningful reform must include:

* An Independent source of funding for Local Authorities - not subject to the whims of the Department of the Environment.

The issue of financing of Local Government is central to any reform. At present, Dublin City Council is losing out on millions of Euro every year (€28m for 2008 alone) from rates which the Government has waived its responsibility to pay. Every Local Authority in our Country has been denied monies due to it in lieu of the abolition of Domestic Rates as well as the costs of Benchmarking and yet there has not been a squeak from the usual commentators about this.
I have previously proposed that a National Forum on the Financing of Local Government should be established as a matter of urgency.
The Forum would draw its membership from the main Political Parties, the three Councillor Representative Bodies and the Social Partners. It would be given six months to a year to agree an approach that would provide sufficient funding on a nationally agreed basis and that would some degree in local flexibility as to appropriate local fund raising.
* Reform of the City and County Managers Act, creating a new post of Chief Executive Officer – accountable to the relevant Local Authority and recruited by the Public Appointments Commission.

* Real controls and limitations on electoral spending at local elections and an ethical framework that is robust and just.

* A directly elected Mayor of Dublin with a five year term and accountable to an enhanced Dublin Regional Authority. In that context I believe that those who advance the case of a directly elected Lord Mayor solely for the City are wrong. It is the Dublin region that needs such political leadership.

* Extending the role of the Dublin Regional Authority –renaming it the Dublin Regional Assembly and making it the body to which the directly elected Mayor would be accountable.
The powers and responsibilities of the Assembly, working with the Mayor, would include:
1) Land Use Planning and Strategic Development.
2) Traffic and Transport Co-ordination – it would be the Dublin Transport Authority.
3) Social and Affordable Housing - it would replace the existing Affordable Housing Partnership in the Dublin area.
4) Dublin Bay, Waterways and Mountains.
5) Economic Development and Enterprise Promotion.


The Assembly would also have a co-ordinating and/or monitoring role in relation to County wide services provided by agencies such as the HSE, VEC, Enterprise Ireland, Policing and relations with other Regional Authorities and relevant bodies etc.
As Bertie Ahern has declared his interest, let me declare mine. While I am interested in contesting for this real job I am far more interested in having a debate and shaping the legislation before it is enacted. In short I want those of us interested in the future of Dublin to actively seek to shape these proposed measures before it is too late.
Some people believe that the role of Local Government is to implement the views and policies of the so-called Department of the Environment and Local Government. It is not. It is my job as a Dublin City Councillor to do all that is best for this City and its citizens. It is my job to stand up for Dublin; not to regurgitate the failed views and policies imposed on our City from the Customs House.
Introducing the direct election of longer term and directly elected Mayors is not the panacea for all our problems but it would be a major starting point. Quite simply the people whom we are meant to serve deserve better than the current situation which suits no one except the Mandarins in the Custom House and the temporary Ministerial Masters. It is time to fight back and to Stand Up for Real Local Government and to Stand up for Dublin. A campaign for a directly elected Mayor will give us a chance to do just that. Lets do it.

I think that it will need someone with more of a track record to be blunt, this is going to be a high profile job with significant responsibilities. More of the same is not needed.

[cllr]

I am glad to say that the response over the last few weeks from a very wide cross section of people has ben a lot more positive.

Anyway I am off now to a Council meeting. Looking forward to engaging in this debate for some time to come.

[dublincitizen]

Can someone please explain to me why Dublin and Cork Mayors are still referred to as 'Lord Mayor' whereas the Mayors for Limerick, Waterford and Galway are called 'Mayors'? Why does ours and Cork's Mayors have such an elitist and.....british title? And why does our Mayor insist on using that carriage thing that drives them around on St. Patrick's Day? Surely things like that belong back in the days of British rule?

Btw its great Dubliners will be able to vote for our own Mayor, but its a f*ckin disgrace that our Mayor will soon have more powers than the Irish President...

[ivnryn]

i'd welcome it if its genuinely democractic and ANYONE can stand, nutters included because thats the price you pay in a democracy.

I would recommend approval voting and obviously that it is much easier to qualify as a candidate than for the President.

PR-STV doesn't work very well when you are only filling 1 seat.

It picks one of the 2 extremes (i.e. mostly the FF or FG candidate) rather than picking someone who falls somewhere in the middle.

[Baron von Biffo]

However it begs the question why did he not do this when he could? More accurately, it begs the question...

Or even more accurately, it doesn't beg the question at all.

Fallacy: Begging the Question

Ok chaps, carry on.