Waterford Councillor Joe Conway  has described the proposal to pay a directly elected Mayor in Waterford a salary of 130 thousand euro as nonsense.

People in Waterford, Cork, and Limerick will be asked on May 24th, to either back or reject the proposal. If passed the first mayors could be elected in 2022.

Minister of State for Local Government John Paul Phelan’s  memo on potential powers for directly elected mayors was approved by the Cabinet yesterday.

The mayors would have powers in housing, planning, roads and the corporate function of the council, and would replace the council chief executive in preparing policy in these areas.

The mayor would also replace the CEO as the person responsible for ensuring all decisions of the elected council are lawful.

The CEO will, however, retain powers to allocate social housing, grant licences or permits, and to deal with enforcement matters such as planning. The relationship between the two will be similar to that between a minister and the secretary general of a government department.

While mayors will be elected for a five-year term and be allowed serve no more than two terms, the initial term will be for two-and-a-half years to allow for transfers of power.

A mayor would have a deputy mayor, nominated by the mayor from the existing council but subject to approval by council vote.

Salaries for the three offices will cost €1m a year.

The council would have oversight of the mayor’s performance and would also have the power, in certain circumstances, to remove the mayor from the role.

Independent Councillor Joe Conway says administration costs along with the salary would bring the cost up and he feels there are greater priorities of spend in Waterford at the moment.

He says there is little a directly elected Mayor could do that the current Mayor can’t do, the only difference being the cost of 30 thousand euro a year compared with the new proposal
costing 130 thousand along with the extra administration costs.