‘Urgent’ action call to allow direct election of mayors
“Urgent” action is needed if Government plans to hold a vote on directly-elected mayors in Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford are to go ahead, a confidential Cabinet memo states.
The memo, seen by the Irish Examiner, also reveals that Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has been criticised by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe for repeatedly failing to bring forward costings to allow the plebiscites to go ahead.
It is planned that the votes in those cities would go ahead on the same day as the local and European elections in May. However, the memo warns: “Urgent enactment of the bill is required to facilitate the implementation of the boundary alteration for the purposes of the election of a new Cork City and County Council at the end of May 2019.”
It states: “The timeframe for production of the local electoral registers means the bill will need to be enacted and commenced in sufficient time to enable the local electors in the transferring area to be included in the register for Cork City Council before publication date of February 1.”
The memo states it is proposed to add as a new part in the Local Government Bill provision for the holding of plebiscites in Cork City, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford on a proposal to provide by law for a directly- elected mayor of those areas.
However, the memo includes concerns from both Attorney General Seamus Woulfe and Mr Donohoe.
The Attorney General notes that that the policy and decision-making in respect of the powers which a directly elected mayor may have and his or her relationship with the elected members were not included in the memo and therefore “due to circumstances outside of our control” the time for examining this memo and its proposals has been relatively short.
The finance minister complains the memo does not quantify the costs involved with the proposal.
“The minister for finance restates therefore that before Government approval for a decision point in a memorandum is sought, as full a cost analysis as possible must be conducted. This also applies where approval in principle is sought,” Mr Donohoe wrote.
“Therefore in the absence of a cost analysis, the minister of finance is of the opinion that any Government approval given to the decision points in this memorandum should not be taken as approval for any related expenditure.”
Mr Donohoe warned that any costs identified “must be met from within existing resources”. “The minister reiterates that request now and asks that the department undertake a full cost analysis of the proposal.”
