Sir, – In response to Damian O’Regan’s letter (July 1st) on local democracy and Deansgrange Road cycle lanes, the central point I made in my previous letter (Letters, June 29th) was that the contentious debate on this matter was ended by a compromise derived by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in ultimate agreement with councillors after a very concentrated and comprehensive level of focus and debate at full council meetings, following a particularly extensive series of communications from local citizens to councillors on the issue.
It is extremely unlikely that such a level of attention on such a localised issue would be replicated under the remit of a directly elected mayor for the whole of Dublin in interaction with a single Dublin authority where issues concerning the Deansgrange Road (and from other suburbs in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown) would effectively be relegated within a mammoth and gargantuan queue along with issues from suburbs such as Lucan, Finglas and other areas across all of Dublin.
This loss of concentrated focus on local matters simply would not be in the best interests of citizens of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown in terms of local democracy representation. – Yours, etc,
Cllr JOHN KENNEDY,
(Fine Gael),
Dún Laoghaire
Rathdown County
Council Offices,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin