The new Dublin City council will be electing a lord mayor when it meets on Monday night and there is much moaning that for the first time Dail deputies and senators can't go forward. Many who have served the city long and well are now, under local government legislation which has now come into effect, ruled out of contention for the plum job as lord mayor of the capital. Over the years, many Dail careers were consolidated, launched and even saved thanks to the exposure the position brings. Others, of course, are pleased that the lord mayoralty is no longer the preserve of those with seats in Leinster House.
So who will replace Joe Doyle? The first step is the formation of a strategic alliance - aka coalition - with the required 27-strong majority. As soon as the results were finalised last weekend, negotiations got underway. As usual they are expected to go to the wire on Monday. Fianna Fail won 20 of the 42 Corpo seats, Labour 14, Fine Gael 9, Sinn Fein 4, the Greens 2 and Independents 3. FF have already been talking to FG and to Labour, but an alliance with FG is preferable because it would have to give less away, and although Doyle snatched the Mansion House from under its noses last year, Fianna Failers felt they worked happily with him.
Under a FF-FG agreement, FF would get the job for three years, and FG for two. But all permutations are being discussed, including a rainbow of FG, Lab, Greens and Independents. Even in the early negotiations there was a reluctance by the major parties to ally with Sinn Fein.
So who will be the capital's new first citizen? Possibly a woman, since the winner will come from either FF or Labour and FF's Mary Mooney and Labour's Mary Freehill have to be the frontrunners. Others in contention - given that national politicians are barred, those who held the job before are discounted and first time councillors are judged unsuitable - include FF's Michael Mulcahy and Tony Taaffe and Lab's Dermot Lacey, Michael Conaghan and Eamon O'Brien. Eric Byrne's bid for the Labour nomination in the long-awaited Dublin South Central by-election would have to rule him out, but then, both Mulcahy and Mooney could be the running too.
With 20 years service, Tony Gregory, who took 36.2 per cent of the vote in his North Inner City constituency, which must be a record in the Republic, would love the job and feels after all these years he deserves it. Colleagues with shorter service have held it. But he's a TD, so it's too late now.