Dublin councillors 'will lose out' to elected mayor

Dublin city councillors could see their powers further reduced once a directly elected mayor is introduced to Dublin in 2011, city manager John Tierney has said.

Mr Tierney was speaking ahead of the publication by the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, of a Green Paper on local government reform, expected early next month.

The paper will include plans for a directly elected mayor with executive powers, possibly having control over all four Dublin local authorities. Unlike the current lord mayor of Dublin, who is appointed by the city councillors on an annual basis, the new mayor would be elected for an extended period, on a similar basis to the mayor of London.

Mr Gormley has said that he sees London as the "blueprint" and that Dublin, as a leading European capital, needs an identifiable leader. He also indicated that he would like to see more powers restored to local councillors.

Councillors have had their powers reduced in recent years, particularly in relation to their ability to determine waste management charges.

However, Mr Tierney said that international experience would indicate councillors are likely to have fewer powers once a directly elected mayor is in place.

"Whatever happens in that regard is going to impinge upon what happens to the powers and functions of the council and how they're distributed. The experience has been that where you have a directly elected mayor it actually reduces the powers of the elected members," he said.

Mr Tierney said he was not against a directly elected mayor, but he said that he did not believe it was a tenable position within the current structure of local government.

"I have no issue with the proposal for a directly elected mayor but my view on it is that simply grafting a directly elected mayor on to the current system is not necessarily addressing the issue of local government reform."

The entire structure, functions, responsibilities and, crucially, financing of the council would have to be changed if a new mayor was to have a "meaningful role", Mr Tierney said.

There were also significant powers that were currently outside the scope of local government altogether, either at management or elected members' level, which the new mayor would need to control if the system was to function properly.

"There are a whole range of functions, currently outside of local government, that that person is not going to be able to directly influence. Equally, if there is very little discretion in terms of funding or finance, again the ability of that person to make a substantial difference is curtailed or restricted."

Currently the council has very little ability to raise funds, apart from the levying of commercial rates, waste management charges, the collection of fines - which in certain sections of the council is not revenue generating - and provision of a small number of other services.

The council also has no jurisdiction in relation to planning much of the city's vital infrastructure and such powers would be essential to making the position of a directly elected mayor viable, Mr Tierney said.

"When we come to do development plans for example, two of the biggest issues we face are education - provision of schools - and public transport, but the local authority does not have the final say in that regard. So what the sphere of influence of the role is going to be is a critical issue."

Mr Tierney said he was not worried his own position might be jeopardised by the provision of a directly elected mayor.