Madam, - With regard to forthcoming legislation for a directly-elected Dublin mayor, a vital component of this must be the re-establishment of a Greater Dublin Transport Authority. Since a key role of the position of mayor will be the planning and management of transport in Greater Dublin, it is vital that the mayor has direct control of this via a dedicated authority.
Such an authority should have at least the same range of powers as London's excellent transport planning and management authority, Transport for London.
This would cover, for example, areas such as; public transport, key arterial roads, taxi regulation, transport information, region-wide demand management measures & parking policy and the development of region-wide transport policy. It should have responsibility for the production a transport plan for the Greater Dublin Region, together with the power and instruments necessary to implement it effectively.
The replacement of the current plethora of State bodies with a single authority would not only lead to more joined-up thinking and streamlined decision-making, but also has the potential to reduce costs substantially, since a multitude of bodies would be replaced with a single entity.
If the role of the mayor is reduced to purely a consultative one, and the myriad of State bodies running Dublin's transport system is preserved, the role of mayor will be so diluted as to be completely ineffectual.
- Yours, etc,
ROWAN CONSTABLE, Rathdown Park, Greystones, Co Wicklow.