Dublin mayor and wellbeing measures
Deputy McAuliffe asked when the Government would bring forward legislation or a convention for a directly elected mayor for Dublin. Deputy Patricia Ryan then asked about wellbeing measures and the Gini coefficient; the Tánaiste said work was under way on the wellbeing index and that income inequality had narrowed in recent years.
We are going to run out of time, so I will take Deputies McAuliffe and Ryan. They have 30 seconds each.
Comment on this
This morning, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage completed the pre-legislative scrutiny of the local government (directly elected mayor with executive functions in Limerick city & county) Bill 2021. It was clear that that legislation would be utterly unsuitable for the Dublin area. Yet, Dublin has been promised a directly elected mayor in the programme for Government.
Can the Tánaiste say when the Government might bring forward either legislation or a convention with a view to getting consensus on the issue? There are many aspects of cultural, social and business life in Dublin that need stronger local government. Housing is one example of an area where the Government has given all of the powers to local authorities, yet I do not see the ambition at local authority level to deliver.
Comment on this
On page 12 of the programme for Government, a commitment is made to introduce new measures of well-being and progress. It states: "existing measures of economic performance fail to measure matters such as damage to the environment and voluntary work...equality of opportunity, distribution of wealth and income..." What progress has been made with this? Will the Government commit to monitoring and improving the Gini co-efficient, which measures the distribution of wealth?
Comment on this
A lot of work is underway on the issue of the well-being index. I will ensure that Deputy Ryan receives an update on that. The Gini co-efficient, which is a measure of income inequality, is produced every year by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, with the survey on income and living conditions. Despite a lot of claims to the contrary and a lot of misinformation, in Ireland as a country, almost unusually in the western world, income inequality has narrowed in recent years. We are much more equal than many other countries that we compare ourselves to. We have seen falling inequality in recent years, not increasing inequality, as least as measured by the Gini co-efficient.
In relation to Deputy McAuliffe's question on the Dublin mayor and Dublin local government, the next citizens' assembly on the list will examine the issue of government in Dublin, because we have an unusual arrangement with the four local authorities and four mayors. It is next on the list to have a citizens' assembly on the issue. We are keen to ensure that happens next year with a view to being able to put proposals to the people of all four Dublin local authorities in a plebiscite on the same day as the local and European elections in 2024.