Move can deliver greatness – but smacks of political delays

STRONG political leaders, chosen by the city’s citizens, with large budgets backed by good expert spending advice have taken some of the world’s big cities and given them greatness.

In the past 40 years it has happened in Paris, London, New York and Barcelona, to name but a few places. Meanwhile, Ireland is still left with our cities’ first citizen being chosen by his or her fellow councillors for one year to officiate at ceremonial occasions.

This has its own importance because good mayors can give communities a surprising uplift. And if the current mayor is an embarrassment, something which happens from time to time, local people can console themselves with the knowledge that it will change within the 12 months.

But the idea of an executive city mayor, directly elected by the people, with a fixed five-year term, a proper budget and skilled staff backup, has been talked about for the past 20 years. Unsurprisingly, the focus has fallen first on Dublin with the suggestion that it could later be extended to Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

Noel Dempsey, when he was environment minister from 1997 until 2002, listed it among an ambitious suite of ambitious political reforms. Few of those became reality –bar the ending of the dual mandate which had allowed people be councillors as well as being a TD or senator.

The idea of a directly elected Mayor of Dublin, with real funding and power, was championed by the Green Party while in coalition with Fianna Fáil from June 2007 until January 2011. The near total economic collapse meant it did not happen.

But there has always been deep-seated opposition inside the two big political parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, at the prospect of directly elected mayors. “Power without responsibility” was how one powerful Fianna Fáil backroom figure summed up this effective opposition to this writer, as the party spiked Noel Dempsey’s ambitions.

The real fear was that a “name” from showbusiness, sport, or other sectors beyond politics, could move in and build a rival political power base. It all looked perilous.

Yes, there are real downsides to the idea: It can mean expensive replication in an administration for a small country which is already heavy enough. It can mean a division of responsibilities risking that such responsibilities will be totally dodged.

Yet the experience elsewhere has taught us there can be considerable dividends attaching to “a real mayor”.

This latest suggestion – effectively amounting to “test-driving a real power mayor in Cork” does smack of trying to find further delays where politicians in Leinster House and Government Buildings are determined to hold what powers they have.

Parking the local rivalries which we will also have, we must ask what value attaches to “piloting” the idea in Ireland’s second city. The recent boundary extension and the reality of only two local authorities there smacks of a political alibi.