FINE GAEL’S David Stanton called for a full debate on local government in Ireland.

“If something is broken, it should be fixed rather than added to,” he said.

Describing the legislation paving the way for a directly elected lord mayor of Dublin as a “smokescreen”, he warned it would add to the problems in local government.

“It is wrong for a Government on the way out to impose this on people,” he added.

Catherine Byrne (FG) said the introduction of a directly elected mayor, at a cost of €10 million plus, was hypocritical when there were more than 400,000 people on the dole.

“At a time when the IMF, the ECB and the EU are holding our purse strings, does Minister John Gormley want us to look like fools?” she asked.

“There is a time and place for all things, but this is not the time and Dublin is not yet the place for this idea.” Dublin, said Ms Byrne, was neither New York nor Barcelona, and she believed the city could survive without such a position.

“Such a mayor would not be involved in the day-to-day running of the city, but would merely sit on an advisory board of the National Transport Authority,” she said.

“In addition, the mayor would have no power over the city’s budget and no role in policies on housing, waste disposal, planning or water.”

Minister of State for the Environment Michael Finneran said Fine Gael was putting forward several misconceptions, some of which seemed to be informed, or rather misinformed, by some newspaper comment. It had been wrongly claimed that the mayor would only have a civic or ceremonial role, without power or influence, leading to increased taxes and charges.

Several Opposition TDs, he said, had spoken about proliferating quangos. The reality was that the four city and county development boards would be merged into one regional development board, chaired by the mayor. “That amounts to three less structures,” said Mr Finneran.

He added that the Dublin regional authority would replace the existing authority, with the membership reduced from 30 to 16.

Michael Kennedy (FF) said the proposal was part of the FF-Green Party programme for government and he supported the measure.

However, he had some reservations and he would welcome deferring the proposal until 2014.