Minutes:
· The Lord Mayor opened the meeting by welcoming everyone back after the summer break and extending congratulations to Councillor Ray McAdam who got married over the summer.
· The Lord Mayor then proposed a resolution to adjourn the meeting at 4.30pm to accommodate Members who wished to attend the Civic Reception in the Mansion House for the Dublin Gaelic Football team who became All Ireland Champions for a fourth successive year. This resolution was seconded by Cllr Mannix Flynn and it was agreed that the meeting would be adjourned to Thursday 13th September to commence after the conclusion of the Special Meeting on the Local Property Tax.
· The Lord Mayor took the opportunity to reiterate Dublin City Councils support for a directly elected mayor, responsible for the four Dublin region local authorities. He then read the following submission into the record:
“In the short time that I have been the City's First Citizen I have seen at first hand the need for a directly elected mayor for the Capital.
I was concerned, but not surprised to read recent reports that plans are to be brought to Cabinet to allow Cork to be the first City to have a directly elected mayor. This proposal flies in the face of the tendency throughout Europe to strengthen institutions of metropolitan governance and planning in Capital Cities, reflecting their status as the primary drivers of economic growth. Key sectors, major multinational and indigenous firms typically headquarter in capital cities, and Dublin is no exception.
A recent paper written by Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at University College London, Prof. John Tomaney and Assoc. Professor of Urban Government and Development at UCD, Niamh Moore-Cherry outlines the reasons why Ireland, reflected by Central Government, suffers from "Metrophobia".
Whilst most central governments throughout Europe and beyond, actively promote large city regions, thus reinforcing the importance of the metropolitan scale in the planning of land use, infrastructure and public services, the failure to promote and reform metropolitan governance in the Dublin region has resulted in dysfunctional urban and regional planning.
I do welcome the fact that Cabinet is finally addressing the issue of directly elected mayors but it is clear to me that while Dublin dominates the National Economy (48% of GDP) it continues to occupy an ambivalent place in the mindset of central government, as proven by this latest anti Dublin bias.
The fact that there has never been a Minister for Urban affairs but a Minister for Rural and Community Development occupies a cabinet position reflects the high degree of governmental centralisation with few powers and little financial autonomy afforded to local government, the LPT take and retention rate being an obvious example of the latter.
Due entirely to Government Policy and its lack of appreciation of the dominant position of Dublin vis a vis the National Economy, we have ended up with weak and competitive local government, particularly in the Dublin region, ensuring that the model in the region rewards competition rather than co-operation between the four local authorities. We have a significant amount of central government in Dublin but very little government of Dublin by Dublin. Dublin urgently needs a single strong voice and strong leadership to provide solutions to the many and varied challenges this region faces.
With your permission I will be contacting the Minister for the Environment Housing, Planning & Local Government urging him to take "metrophobia" away from the Cabinet table and treat Dublin as the economic driver and great Capital City that it is and ensure that Dublin is the first Region to have a directly elected Mayor.” The Members agreed that the Lord Mayor would write to the Minister to outline the concerns expressed in his statement.
· The Lord Mayor informed Members that he was acceding to their request for a Special Meeting to discuss solutions to Dublin City’s current housing crisis. The Special Meeting will take place on Monday 24th September at 6.15pm.
· The Lord Mayor informed Members that certain items on the agenda were time sensitive. The Members agreed to suspend standing orders to take items on the agenda out of order due to the time constraints of this meeting.