The Government may be forced to abandon a promise to provide for the direct elections of mayors and county council chairpersons from next year because of fears of opposition from local authority managers.
Civil servants say the plan, from the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, will meet resistance from county managers who could see their powers diluted.
Mr Dempsey is to bring a report on the direct election of mayors and council chairpersons to today's weekly Cabinet meeting.
The Minister last May announced his intention to provide for the direct elections of mayors and county council chairpersons, under the Local Government Reform Bill. He said the Bill would provide for the most radical shake-up of local government in the history of the State.
The Bill is to allow for the payment and training of councillors and to end the system whereby a politician can hold both a council and an Oireachtas seat at the same time.
It was due to be published in September, but publication has been delayed because of problems with some of its aspects and because of its huge size. A spokesman for the Minister said the Bill would be published before the start of the next Dail session.
A Government source told The Irish Times last night that various sections of the Bill had come before the Cabinet for approval. The Minister would bring a separate discussion document on the direct election of mayors and county council chairpersons to the Cabinet for discussion today.
"The political mood is that this is a good idea, and the Minister says it is a good idea. However, it is running into serious practical problems," said the source. It was acknowledged that there was no point in introducing the measure without giving directly-elected mayors and county council chairpersons more power.
Another source pointed out that this would mean stripping powers from senior local authority managers, "a move that will meet huge resistance".
The Minister, in an article published in The Irish Times on May 14th last, said Fianna Fail believed that local government should be made more "people-centred", and promised reforms giving local people a more central role in the operation of local authorities. Promising that mayors and chairpersons of local authorities would become more central in the whole local government process, with their terms of office extended to two years, he said: "Their ultimate accountability will no longer be solely to their peers, but to the people, as direct elections will be introduced for these positions."
A spokesman for the Minister said last night that the matter was still up for discussion and decision by the Cabinet.
When asked about the delay in the publication of the Local Government Reform Bill in the Dail two weeks ago, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the matter "is with the Government".