The idea of metro mayors still has legs to run

The election results are almost all in and political anoraks have been digesting the information gleaned from the ballot boxes like famished goats. It is worth examining a set of votes that have rather slipped under their radar.

The outcome of the referenda on the proposal for directly elected city mayors merits study, not least because they reveal an appetite for reform of governance among the population. The narrow victory for the proposal in Limerick and equally narrow defeats in Cork and Waterford tells one quite a bit about the views of the voters in these areas.