Green Paper with elected mayor for Dublin to be published next week

PROPOSALS FOR a directly-elected mayor of Dublin are to be unveiled next week, the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, has said.

They will be contained in the Green Paper on the reform of local government which is expected to strengthen the powers of councillors, create new local authorities and cap spending on elections.

The transformation of local government was one of the key issues for the Green Party while negotiating the programme for government with Fianna Fáil last year.

Mr Gormley said a directly-elected mayor for Dublin will be in place by 2011 with the power to transform the city in terms of litter, waste and transport.

Speaking at the launch of a countrywide initiative to tackle graffiti, Mr Gormley said a directly-elected mayor would be best placed to deal with issues like graffiti in Dublin as Ken Livingstone had done as mayor of London.

Livingstone brought in a voluntary ban on spray paints and his Capital Standards initiative tripled the number of fines being handed out for graffiti.

"They [ Londoners] have a directly elected mayor who has introduced a number of initiatives not just in relation to graffiti, but also transport and London has been transformed as a consequence," Mr Gormley said.

The Community Graffiti Reduction Programme here has been allocated €3.75 million.

Money will be available initially in deprived Rapid (Revitalising Areas through Planning, Investment and Development) areas only, but will become available for areas in the rest of the country later this year.

Funding will be available, not just for clean-up operations, but also to support education and community arts projects to give youngsters who are interested in graffiti an outdoor platform without defacing the environment.

Mr Gormley said that graffiti is an issue that is raised "again and again" by constituents and measures were being examined that would lead to more prosecutions especially for "taggers" who leave a signature.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Brian Lenihan, who also attended the launch in Dublin yesterday, said creating a climate where graffiti did not flourish was "very important in the fight against crime".

"It creates the culture of compliance that we want to create in all our cities," he said.