The Green Party wants a directly elected lord mayor for Dublin, heading a city cabinet, and a deregulated pub market, party councillors Mr Ciaran Cuffe and Mr Eamon Ryan have said.
Announcing their party's strategy for Dublin - 21 Policies for the 21st Century - in an old Dublin pub yesterday, they called for moves to save Dublin pubs of character. Mr Cuffe said the way the pub market was organised was "leading to genuine pubs of character being destroyed as developers maximise profits".
"We want to see small neighbourhood pubs protected," he added, saying strict regulations on issuing licences was forcing pubs of character to expand and change to maximise turnover. With the city changing so rapidly it was "important to preserve what we have".
The party's strategy is to develop a plan to prepare Dublin for the 21st century. Dublin Corporation was "moribund", Mr Ryan said, and by publishing this plan the Green Party hoped to prompt discussion among councillors about how best to manage the capital. He hoped other parties would follow and publish their strategy plans.
The party called for a directly elected lord mayor serving a five-year term. All thriving cities had and needed publicly elected citymanagers, Mr Ryan said, citing Barcelona and New York.
It also wanted an elected transport and planning officer; a new payment, including £10,000 in expenses a year for councillors; a moratorium on high-rise buildings until the High Rise Building Study is completed; the promotion of traditional retail streets such as Moore Street and Camden Street, ahead of out-of-town malls; and the posting of the minutes of all Dublin Corporation meetings on the Internet.
The Green Party won 5.6 per cent of the vote in Dublin in the last general election, and 7 per cent of the vote in Dublin city in last year's local elections.
