Not so much directly elected Mayors, but directly elected County Managers. This would only work if it was also coupled with devolution of some executive powers to the counties, (including tax raising powers), but at the same time, there would need to be a centrally administered anti-corruption body, with powers of arrest, that would put an end to any local naughtiness.

The idea being that decisions that impact people are made as close to them as is politically practical.

Why no option for having no mayor at all ? We already have too many self serving dimwits with their snouts in the trough without adding “democratic legitimacy” to their pompous self regard.

With a Mayor we could have a Dublin Municipal Authority or a Regional Assembly. Do away with the four Dublin Local Authority’s

Oh yes, let’s increase the length and depth of the trough…….. let’s eliminate some more frontline services for the creation of another layer of “managers of self-aggrandizement”. Further distance between central government and people would suit the powers that be………… you can then blame your neighbour and not the suit in the Dail. This is after all a huge, very important country, emphasised by the above average salaries of our dear elected leaders. Yes, lets cap the grand illusion obviously besetting anyone entering the corridors of power in this great country of ours. LOL……… didn’t mean to smile…….. might give the game away!

what does de mayor do? draw down a wage i assume-but other than that??

Problem is that the current Mayor of Dublin has very little power compared to London.

Also Dublin is split into four councils. Let the Mayor cover all four or just DCC?

Yes to a directly elected mayor.
Yes to merging the four local authorities into one Greater Dublin Regional Assembly.
Yes to less councillors across the country – with as close to an equal representation nationally as possible.
Yes to merging smaller county councils.
Yes to directly elected county (area) managers.
Yes to three or four year terms at local level rather than the current five year terms.
Yes to a beefed up SIPO.

And then yes to local taxes to encourage interest among taxpayers in decision making at a local level.

There should be locally elected councils, to deal with local issues. Then they could chose their own mayor or county manager.
Then the Dail could use its resources to deal with national issues only.

No

We dont even need Mayors for that matter. We need one council to run the entire bloody show. 100 people could run Ireland. There’s no need what so ever for 95% of the useless wafflers we have at the moment, they’re just not needed.

there is only one area of the country worth the effort and cost of installing the legislation and institutions needed to make such a set up work and that wud be a greater dublin region. not just the four dublin authorities over the county but parts of meath, kildare and wicklow. this wud mean a greater ability to plan transport and planning issues on a more cohesive scale to benefit the 1.5m people living in or around the capital to serve them better and be more sustainable both economically and environmentally!

No

Lets get some more loans from other countries to waste some more money on something that has little or no benefit for the people. Sounds like a good idea to me.

we need a different way of giving power back to people – town hall type decision making but this time online – starting to happen with crowdsourcing. we don’t live in a democracy- we the voters are just an unnecessary encumbrance to those who hold power, whether they are elected or not.
try holding a public meeting in Dublin ? not easy

No need to waste more money and time on election campaigns. They don’t even do anything worthwhile except for handshake photos. In fact, we should just get rid of them altogether; we would probably save a fair penny on allowances and associated costs

I think we should be an an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We’d take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.

Seriously though, the voting-for-mayor thing.

We have enough corrupt politicians and councillors. Just look at Oisin Quinn on Dublin City Council.

Independent mayor who is not a member of any party then you could give them power

http://www.facebook.com/DemocraticDublin #democraticdublin

Some see this this proposal as another empty suit, politically speaking, but actually, having an office where the buck can stop would very likely help solve a lot of problems. Transport for example, an area where London would be very strong, could conceivably be vastly improved in Dublin with less bureaucracy.

If there was a directly elected Mayor he or she should have the same powers as City/County Managers, otherwise it’d be tokenistic. However, privatisation has cast a shadow of redundancy over our Council’s. With waste, water and other services now out of their remit, it is easy to ask why we even have local authorities. If local government is to exist power has to be restored to them and they should be providing a service, otherwise maintaining local public representatives is an extravagant waste of public money.

Do we need Mayor’s??? We should abolish the positions

My vote did not show up. I know because there are currently only two votes, both yes, and I did not vote yes.

I believe there also Thames Valley Police???