Gormley seeks views on council reform

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley will be in Cork today to hear citizens’ views on how the city and county councils should be reformed.

Mr Gormley will attend a local government reform forum at the Oriel House Hotel in Ballincollig at midday.

Earlier this year, the minister launched a green paper (or discussion paper) on local government, which sets out a range of options for changing the way local authorities are run. The green paper caught the headlines because it proposes a directly-elected mayor for Dublin, who would have a range of powers across areas such as planning, housing, waste, water provision and waste water disposal. The mayor would also act as chair of the Dublin Transport Authority.

However, the paper envisages directly-elected mayors for other cities and counties, and Mr Gormley last night said such a system would “make sense” for Cork.

However, it would first have to be seen whether the directly-elected mayor in Dublin proved a success. The minister’s intention is that citizens in Dublin would get to vote to elect their mayor in 2011.

At present, mayors are elected by their fellow councillors on local authorities.