A bid by left-leaning councillors on Dublin City Council to change the title of Lord Mayor because of its colonial resonances has been described as “ridiculous” by a Fianna Fáil rival.

Paul McAuliffe said a motion to change the title of Lord Mayor to “Civic Mayor” was like “moving the deckchairs on the Titanic” as bigger issues like the housing crisis needed to be addressed.

Independent councillor Mannix Flynn has put forward a motion to the council to change the title, first used in 1665, to Civic Mayor.

Anti-Austerity Alliance Councillor Michael O'Brien told RTÉ's Morning Ireland: "The problem - while it is not the most burning issue facing the council - the word 'Lord' is a vestige of feudalism, it is a gender title too. Like, 'Lord' suggests a male and it is an essential piece of 21st century house keeping for the City Council to dispatch with the word 'Lord'.

“It’s not a debate that should necessarily take a large amount of time and if we do pass a motion to that effect, the ball is in the court of the Minister just to reform the Local Government Act.”

Cllr O’Brien said that Cllr Flynn’s proposal of the title Civic Mayor would be an improvement. “The word mayor is problematic too, its roots suggest one’s betters, I would prefer chairperson or Cathaoirleach or whatever. But Civic Mayor is an improvement on Lord Mayor,” said Cllr O’Brien.

He continued: “If we’re going to debate symbolism we should debate roles that councillors have available to them. The motto of the city when translated from the Latin is — ‘The obedience of the citizens produces a happy city’ — I’d say quite the opposite is the case.

“It’s this notion of subjects and nobility and obedience of the people.”

But Cllr McAuliffe said: “People listening this morning, trying to get kids to school, trying to get to work, wondering if there’s a bus, and here we are effectively discussing changing the deckchairs on the Titanic.

“The problem is it can’t be done simply. Yes, we can decide it... but then it also needs to go through a vote in the Dáil and for it to be changed in the Seanad as well.”

He asked: “Should we be spending our time on that and not on things like the housing crisis?”

He said: “There are very positive reasons for keeping the title too, it’s very well understood both in the city and internationally, we have an alternative for those who have a different view, that’s the use of the phrase Ard Mhéara. That was used all last year, it’s not gender specific, it doesn’t have any British colonial implications.

“We have a city budget meeting tonight they’re the sort of issues we should be focusing on.”

The Fianna Fáil councillor said: “This is the problem we have a predominantly hard left city council and they’re chasing each other, preoccupied with outdoing each other on these populist anti colonial issues. It’s ridiculous. We have huge issues in the city — infrastructure crisis, they’re the things we need to be dealing with.

“These are smaller issues, they really aren’t important, and shouldn’t be getting the ear of a full council meeting.”