Minister for the Environment John Gormley today unveiled the first steps towards what he described as one of the most sweeping reforms of local government in the State's history.
He confirmed his intention to make the mayor of Dublin a publicly elected position and said consideration should be given to doing likewise for other cities and counties.
A public consultation process was begun today to feed into a Green Paper to be published within six months.
Councillors, academics and interested parties will also have an input before Mr Gormley produces the paper, which will then be subject to a further period of consultation before a White Paper is published next year.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley
"The Green Paper will mark a start to the reform process. It will set out options for change. I hope, in turn, that the Green Paper sparks national debate on local government reform," the Minister said.
"I wish to achieve as much consensus as possible on the reform agenda before finalising my proposals in a White Paper next year. I want to hear from the citizen - the customer of the local council - on how they think the local government service can be improved."
Dublin's profile as a major international capital "has never been so high", but it had many challenges to face, Mr Gormley added.
"A city of Dublin's status needs a mayor who can act as the voice of the city. That can best be achieved by a directly elected mayor, with real powers, and with the certainty of a reasonable term in office."
Labour Environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said the planned pace of reform was too slow and queried whether an election for Dublin's mayor would happen by 2011 as suggested by the Minister.
"There would not seem to be any logic to having a direct election for a Mayor in 2011, presumably for a five-year term, when the other members of Dublin local authorities will have been elected for a five year term in 2009.
"It would be illogical and impractical to have mayors and other members operating overlapping periods in office," Mr Gilmore said.
Considering the White Paper is due to be published next year, Mr Gilmore said there was sufficient time to hold the mayoral poll on the same date as the local and European elections.
Fine Gael's Fergus O'Dowd also called for a speedier process and the creation of a local government citizen's charter defining authorities' irresponsibilities and functions.
"If the Minister decides to join us in an agenda for reform, he will have our full backing. If he chooses the Fianna Fáil way of commissioning reports and never acting, he will once again have betrayed all those who voted for change," Mr O'Dowd said. He also called for directly-elected mayors for all local authority areas with the power to appoint a cabinet.
Key areas the Green Paper will address include:
- How a directly elected mayor will operate in Dublin, what powers the office will have, and what areas will it be responsible for
- Whether there should be directly elected mayors for other towns or counties in the country
- Whether there should be a rebalancing of powers between elected councillors and local authority managers and officials
- Whether new town councils should be established for the new large communities that have been built up in the past decade
Advertisements seeking submissions from the public will appear in the local and national press in the coming months.
Acting leader of the Greens and TD for North Dublin Trevor Sargent immediately supported the principle of establishing new authorities in commuter belt towns.
"In Fingal, our fast-growing towns require their own councils to bring local decision-making closer to our communities. We will, amongst other things, insist that new councils be established for such towns," Mr Sargent said.