Mayoral elections: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Royston Brady, was a symbol of everything that was wrong with local government in Ireland, it was claimed at the PD conference.
A local election candidate in Dublin south-east, Mr Tony Williams, claimed that Mr Brady had demeaned, diminished and stripped powers from the position of lord mayor.
In what was virtually the only attack on any Fianna Fáil figure at the PD conference, Mr Williams said Mr Brady was in the post of lord mayor because of a carve-up of the selection procedure by Fianna Fáil and Labour.
He said the system favoured figures such as Mr Brady, who is running in the European election in Dublin. The only way to change the system was to introduce direct elections for town and city mayors and give them extensive executive powers.
"We must give power back to the office of mayor," he said.
However, Mr Williams said Fianna Fáil was afraid to introduce the system because it did not trust the Irish people.
Mr Williams was speaking from the platform on motions dealing with local Government reform.
While the PDs have no sitting councillors on Dublin City Council, the party is fielding seven candidates and hopes to secure at least four seats.
Ms Wendy Hederman, who is running in the Pembroke ward, said the Exchequer spent €6 billion annually on local Government. There is no requirement to measure value for money, productivity, expenditure per head of population or measure staff numbers against the services they provided.
Mr Cormac Bohan, a candidate in Drogheda, Co Louth, called for reform of the system of commercial rates. "Eight per cent of the buildings are paying 33 per cent of the spending by local authorities," he said.
