I am here out of respect for the House, of which I am a former Member.

Out of respect for the House and for Senator Clonan, I felt obliged to stay here for this debate. I am not going to respond to the debate. This is an issue I am aware of but I do not have a competence in. It does not come within my brief. I undertake to go back to the Minister to confirm what exactly happened here - I suspect it will also be followed up by the Seanad Office - namely, that the Minister was not present to respond to the Senator's Commencement matter. The Senator is hugely committed to this very worth…

I thank the Deputy I acknowledge this is of interest to him and to other Members. We are currently finalising those deliberations with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and we really want to ensure it reflects the modern requirements under the housing adaptation grants. I hope we will come to that conclusion very quickly.

I am delighted to be here today to bring the Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023 before the House. The main aim of this Bill is to establish a new office of directly elected mayor for Limerick City and County Council and to provide for the public to directly elect a person to that office. The Bill provides that most but not all executive functions currently performed by the chief executive of Limerick City and County Council will transfer to the mayor. Some functions, in term…

It will be a great role.

It will be next week or the week after.

The mayor will propose the budget in Limerick.

I thank Senators for their frank and open contributions. Obviously they have detailed knowledge of working with local authority members. In the time I have, I will go through the points they raised. Senator Cummins made reference to the fresh start principle. That will apply not only to people in insolvency arrangements, but also to people who have been divorced or separated. It provides a fresh start and is a very good measure. Senator Boyhan raised a number of points. I will start with the principle and go back t…

The legislation defines what powers are retained by the CEO. Every other power goes to the mayor. In Limerick, we have DACs, which are development companies set up through the local authority. They currently report to the CEO. They will now report to the mayor. That is something I specifically got included in the legislation because I wanted to ensure the mayor has that role. If the mayor wishes, he or she can devolve some powers to the CEO, but the CEO is completely answerable to the mayor in that particular deleg…

There is a review.

I look forward to debating-----

There is a review after five years.

I have no doubt we will have that debate during the planning-----

I very much look forward to working with the Senators on Committee, Report and Final Stages. As I mentioned, I propose to bring Government amendments to the Bill to make small tweaks to the director general functions and miscellaneous provisions relating to financing of the Housing Finance Agency and the Land Development Agency, which are Government priorities. There may be some other amendments relating to the Bill itself. I look forward to working collaboratively with Members. My intention would be not to guillot…

I will always consider amendments.

Pardon?

I accepted amendments on Committee and Report-----

Everyone has the same aspirations here. I go back to the fundamental principles; the people of Limerick voted for his. Ultimately, I am responsible to them. They voted on a particular plebiscite. That is in the Bill. There is a review mechanism within three years and we can expand the role. I see this as the start of a process, with many things happening and originating in Limerick. I hope it will become a national platform. I thank the officials for their work.

It was remiss of me. I again compliment Tim O'Connor who was chair of the IAG. It did phenomenal work, much of which is reflected in the Bill, including on the príomh comhairleoir and the leas príomh comhairleoir. I also compliment the executive in Limerick City and County Council and, in particular, the elected councillors for their engagement on this. This is something radical. In the Irish context, it is new. We want to make certain we get it right. We are all democrats. The people of Limerick voted for this and…

I thank Deputy Gould. I fully understand his earnestness in terms of the regeneration projects in Cork. He specifically name-checked Mayfield and Knocknaheeny. I will follow up with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Department to find out exactly what is going on and we will give the Deputy a written response.