The Green Party has today accused the Labour Party of back-tracking on plans for a Directly Elected Mayor for Dublin. Spokesperson for Reform, and Councillor for Dublin’s north inner city, Ciarán Cuffe, said today that Labour had “performed a spectacularly disappointing U-turn" on the issue and called on them to urgently reconsider their position. Cllr Cuffe said: "Dublin is the engine of Ireland, but it’s currently run by a rotating committee of unanswerable chief executives and chain-swapping councillors. It is time for this to change. Minister Kelly is already proving himself to be worse than his predecessor Phil Hogan in his disdain for the needs of the capital."The Labour Party campaigned on a platform that included the introduction of a Directly Elected Mayor with real powers. In recent days, however, their new Minister for the Environment has said that a Dublin Mayor 'was not on his list of priorities’. If the Minister doesn’t think it’s achievable, he should explain why it was in the Labour Party manifesto in the first place."The Green Party in government produced plans for a Dublin Mayor that could still be rolled out in a matter of weeks. If the Labour Party is committed to standing up for Dublin they can and should make this legislation a reality.“I am calling on the Labour Party, and in particular the Labour councillors who in the past championed the idea of a Directly Elected Mayor, to have a quiet word with Minister Kelly and educate him of the differences between managing a constituency the size of Tipperary North and addressing the future needs of a major international city."A lack of joined-up thinking on the big issues for Dublin such as housing, waste and traffic is costing us precious time, money and jobs, and it’s time for change. What's good for Dublin is good for Ireland. It is not a case of choosing one over the other.”

Published 12Aug14