Fine Gael TD, Mr Gay Mitchell has called for the Lord Mayor of Dublin to be directly elected by the people of the city and said the term of office should be extended from one to five years.
Speaking today at the launch of his party's Lord Mayor for Dublin Campaign, Mr Mitchell accused the Government of going back on the Local Government Act 2001 which provided for directly elected mayors.
He said it was seeking to have the Act overturned just 18 months after it had been passed.
Highlighting cocerns over traffic congestion and poor public transport in the city, he said Fine Gael's proposals would make the Lord Mayor directly "accountable to the people".
The directly elected Mayor would be able to "do at a City level what the Taoiseach should be doing at national level," he said.
Insisting that his party would "be opposing the proposed changes in the Government Bill" he said Dublin's increasingly multi-cultural society needed "leadership and modern decision-making".
He accused the Government of having "lost their nerve" over the radical proposals to restructure local government throughout the country.