Mayoral Election
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West

Senator Boyhan has given a very level-headed and fair assessment of how the Limerick mayor is working out. Of course, it was never going to be without issues and was never going to go 100% smoothly. I spent 13 years on a local authority and one gripe we always had was that the chief executive was not directly elected and we were the ones who had to face the people and face the music on a five-year term. This was a response to that so I appreciate the Senator's assessment of it.
I will give the substantive response and touch on the review later. The Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2024 gives effect to the 2019 plebiscite where the people of Limerick voted to have a directly elected mayor. The legislation replaces the previous two-pillar structure with the elected council and the chief executive performing the functions of Limerick City and County Council with a three-pillar structure of the elected council, the Mayor and the director general, who was formerly the chief executive. The legislation makes no change to the primacy of the elected council, which retains all of its reserved functions. Under statute, it continues to govern the work of Limerick City and County Council and oversee the performance of the executive, including the Mayor.
The Príomh Chomhairleoir is a new role established by the 2024 Act and is held by a councillor, who chairs council meetings and is selected by the council each year. The Mayor serves a five-year term and is responsible for the functions outside the council chamber that were previously performed by the cathaoirleach, including the important representative role for Limerick.
The Mayor has new functions assigned under the Act, including preparing a mayoral programme as well as responsibility for strategic and policy functions previously carried out by the chief executive. These functions include proposing the annual budget and the corporate plan to the council, which has the final decision-making role by accepting them with or without amendments; strategic development, including proposing the development plan, which is a matter for the plenary council to agree; housing and building strategy, including proposing the housing strategy for approval as part of the development plan; road transport and safety; and environmental services.
Under the Act, the Mayor is an ex officio member of the council with similar rights, responsibilities and duties to other members. The director general is responsible for supporting the Mayor and the council in their roles, the day-to-day operations of the council and specific executive functions. These functions include staffing and human resources, the role of Accounting Officer and administering schemes, grants and enforcement.
The legislation is clear in its design of the roles of Mayor, Príomh Chomhairleoir and director general while preserving the democratic role of the elected members of the council. It mirrors the intention of the detailed policy proposals put before the people of Limerick in the 2019 plebiscite and reflects the recommendations of the independent implementation advisory group on the design of the mayoral office. Importantly, the legislation provides that the Minister will conduct a review of its operation and effectiveness not later than three years after the establishment of the mayoral office, that is, by mid-2027. This timeframe was viewed as an appropriate balance between assessing the new office in a timely way while also allowing time for the new arrangements to bed down.
As part of the review, the Minister shall consult with the Mayor, Limerick City and County Council, the consultative forum and other appropriate people. On the completion of the review, the Minister shall make a report to each House of the Oireachtas on its findings.
The review will commence in mid-2027, and there will be full consultation. I thank the Senator for his fair and level-headed assessment of this new ground of having a directly elected mayor and allowing that person to represent, in the best possible way, the people of Limerick and to take the appropriate steps to ensure that the city and county drive forward. I appreciate the Senator raising the matter. I hope I have given him enough detail on how the review will work.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03