Dublin city needs a directly elected lord mayor and a new local authority with responsibility for planning and transport, according to the incoming president of the city's chamber of commerce.

Mr David Pierce yesterday told Dublin Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting that the city's current management structures were not working.

He argued that they should be replaced by a new authority covering the greater Dublin area, which would in turn be led by a directly elected lord mayor.

He told the meeting that the authority's responsibilities should include strategic land use and planning, transport management and planning, and marketing the greater Dublin area.

Under the chamber's proposals, the existing local authorities would remain in place, but their powers would not extend to the areas controlled by the new authority. He said the system now employed to manage London provided the template for the chamber's proposals.

"The chamber proposes that the greater Dublin authority should be headed by a directly elected mayor, whose term of office should be for a four-year period," he said.

"More significantly, the authority should have power to allocate budgets to allow for the carrying-out of its key tasks. This would ensure that it does not become simply a co-ordination body, the ultimate kiss of death for any public service organisation."

Mr Pierce warned inaction on a number of fronts was "retarding the rapid strides Dublin had made in recent years".

"Dublin's problem is lack of leadership," he said. "We have a situation where everybody is in charge, but nobody is in overall charge. As a result, Dublin is suffering.

"The city is developing in an unplanned, unco-ordinated way. There is little, if any, relationship between the development of transport and where people want to live. The main transport projects are not being delivered, and the concept of integrated transport is still a long way off - even if it is ever to happen."