Paid councillors and directly elected lord mayors to be introduced by 2004

Paid councillors, directly elected lord mayors and an end to the dual mandate by which members of the Dail may retain their council seats, are to be introduced - but not until 2004, the Government has decided.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, had previously signalled in an article in The Irish Times last May, that the dual mandate would not end until 2004, but there was widespread anticipation that paid councillors and directly elected chairs of local authorities would be introduced after the June local elections in the lifetime of the current councils.

However, addressing a lunch meeting of members of the General Council of County Councils yesterday, the Minister effectively announced the postponement of all three reforms until 2004.

Confirming that the Local Government Reform Bill would be published early next year and would contain all three measures, Mr Dempsey nevertheless said they would not come into effect until 2004, after the next set of local elections.

Neither did the Minister set the rate of remuneration for members of councils but he did spell out that the period of office for an elected chair would be the full life of the council, that is five years, and not two years as he indicated in his Irish Times article.

While most of the local government reforms were already agreed by the Government, the political sensitivity of the measures - elected chairs or mayors, for example, would be expected to have significant political power - were only approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday.

Members of the general council indicated yesterday that they would welcome the changes, despite the delay. Remuneration for members of local authorities was estimated at somewhere between £5,000 and £8,000.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the council warned however that the election of council chairs and mayors "is not going to be a free ticket to political stardom for celebrity candidates".

The announcement has also met with the approval of Dublin Chamber of Commerce, and the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland.

With regard to the ending of the dual mandate, Mr Dempsey said the changes were designed to underline the "distinctive roles of both national and local government and will benefit both".