County councillors seek meeting with Dempsey over mayoral elections

The General Council of County Councils has called for an urgent meeting with the Minister for the Environment following the announcement that legislation which provides for the direct election of lord mayors will be approved by Cabinet on Tuesday.

Delegates at the annual conference in Monaghan yesterday - which by coincidence was debating the subject of elected mayors - held aloft copies of The Irish Times and complained that they had not been told of Mr Dempsey's decision.

Mr Dempsey had previously indicated his intention to introduce directly-elected mayors, but councillors have expressed fears that the move would weaken their powers.

The councillors also expressed anger at the timing of the revelation, just hours after the Minister had addressed them at the opening of their conference on Thursday night. Delegates claimed the appropriate place for an announcement that the legislation was to be approved was at their conference, particularly as the debate was on the agenda.

The debate was addressed by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ms Mary Freehill, and the cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council, Mr Sean Doyle.

Ms Freehil spoke in favour of the proposal, which is to be introduced at the next local elections in 2004, describing it as an "exciting yet challenging opportunity".

She said: "The creation of a directly-elected position at local level would bring a climate where the citizen has a sense of ownership of the position. The rapidly decreasing numbers voting in recent by-elections and local elections raises the issue of voter apathy.

"Any action that gives the voter ownership is worth considering. I believe that if people voted for, or even against, a person, they are likely to have a loyalty to that person at a level which is more significant than that of a Taoiseach, and the office of the president is a good example."

"I am aware that some of my colleagues feel that a directly-elected mayor could weaken the position of councillors. I believe otherwise. The status of the elected councillor in this country is much weaker than in any of our EU countries. This is due mainly to the 1940 Management Act, which severely curtailed our powers," she maintained.

In his opposing argument, Mr Doyle said that directly-elected mayors would be the "death knell of democracy".

He described the move as "another layer of bureaucracy separating the councillors from effective action".

"It is my considered opinion that senior civil servants and Government ministers do not trust local public representatives. There must be a reason why we are the most powerless public representatives in Europe. The much vaunted local government reform that we have had and the reform that is promised is cosmetic."

A Sinn Fein MLA, Dr Dara O'Hagan, invited the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ms Mary Freehill, to Portadown to "witness first-hand the effects of the Orange siege of the nationalist people of the Garvaghy Road".

Ms Freehill met Dr O'Hagan and representatives of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition at the a.g.m. of the General Council of County Councils in Monaghan yesterday.

The Lord Mayor had agreed to an early-morning meeting with Dr O'Hagan to discuss Orange marches in the summer. However, after the meeting, Ms Freehill claimed she "had been set up" by the chairman of Monaghan Urban District Council, Sinn Fein's Mr Owen Smith, who, she said, had not told her that a representative of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition would also be at the meeting.