Advocates have claimed that giving a directly elected mayor some of the executive powers currently held by unelected
local authority chief executives would improve
legitimacy,
accountability, and public
engagement with local government.[1] Political consultant Derek S. Mooney opposed the plan as not addressing the powerlessness of local government and likely to create a personality clash between the mayor and the
Taoiseach of the day.[2]Fingal County Council members have opposed the plan on the basis that its agenda would be swamped by the needs of the core urban centre.
The
Local Government Reform Act 2014 passed by the
Fine Gael—Labour coalition formed after the 2011 general election made widespread changes to local government, including provision for a "Directly Elected Mayor for Dublin Metropolitan Area".[10] The act specified several stages in the process leading to the creation of the office of mayor:[10]
the four local authorities' councils would send delegates to a forum to agree a draft plan for the mayor's functions.[11] This forum in fact met in April 2013, before the bill had been introduced; after public consultations, the resulting report was submitted in late 2013, before the bill became law.[12][13][14] The Act retrospectively sanctioned these steps.[14][15]
the Minister would approve the draft.[16] This happened in March 2014.[14]
each council had to vote to put the draft to a plebiscite[17]Fingal County Council voted 16–6 to reject it on 31 March 2014, obviating the need for subsequent steps.[18][19] The other three councils voted for the plebiscite.[18][19]
The following steps provided for under the Act did not happen because of Fingal's rejection:[18][19]
at the plebiscite, a majority of local election voters across the four authorities' areas would have to approve the proposal[20]
the government would choose to implement the proposal, and the Oireachtas would enact new legislation to effect this.[21]
an election would be held, under the terms of the new legislation, for the post of mayor.[22]
Those supporting and opposing the original plan called on the Minister to revise the proposal.[19] On 10 June 2014 he told the Dáil, "The Government remains committed to the notion of a plebiscite for a directly elected mayor for Dublin, and it appears that it is down to me to come up with a fresh initiative in view of the failure of the forum to achieve that consensus."[23]
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abÓ'Riordáin, Seán (October 2010).
Assessing the local-centre government policy relationship in Ireland(PDF) (Thesis). Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Volume I p.205. Retrieved 23 November 2016. Partially in place–The Local Government Act, 2001 provided for directly elected full term mayors. This was subsequently amended so that Mayors may be appointed on a one year term basis within the elected council. The forthcoming White Paper on Local Government proposes the implementation of a full term directly elected Mayor for the Dublin Region and a subsequent roll out to appropriate City Regions. Legislation enabling the election of a Dublin Region Mayor has been published and is expected to be passed before both Houses in Autumn 2010