It will be a unique and indeed historic local election for the citizens of Limerick on 7 June next.
They will receive three ballot papers on which to cast their votes.
One for the local elections, one for the European Elections for the South constituency, and for the first time ever in the history of the State, one to directly elect their own mayor of Limerick city and county.
Why is this? Because in 2019, the people of Limerick and the citizens of Cork and Waterford voted in a plebiscite about whether they wanted to directly elect their own mayor.
The only place it was carried was Limerick, albeit by a slim margin of just over 3,500 votes.
Over the past five years, much work has been done to get legislation in place to execute the will of the citizens of Limerick and enable them to vote.
An implementation advisory group, headed by former civil servant Tim O’Connor, gathered to make recommendations about how best to establish and give shape to the new office and its duties and powers.
They set out quite an ambitious vision for the office.
The directly elected mayor should be a champion of Limerick, a key leadership figure, a ‘North Star’ person to develop Limerick’s potential as a great place to live, work, grow up and grow old in as well as to invest in and visit, they said.
The person will have a direct mandate from the people, which brings with it authority and obligations, so it was also advised that it have the statutory powers to match that ambition.
Read more: Limerick prepares to vote for directly-elected mayor
This resulted in the Local Government [Mayor of Limerick] Bill being signed into law, just last week by President Michael D Higgins from his hospital bed, setting out the role and functions of the office before citizens head to the poles on 7 June.
It is a significant piece of legislation and has been described as the most significant reform of local government since the foundation of the State.
There will now be three tiers to local government in Limerick – the elected council, the mayor and the council director general, who is the former chief executive.
The new mayor will not take on many of the functions of the CEO.
The mayor will propose the annual budget, propose and implement the development plan for the city and county, develop a housing plan and ensure its delivery, be responsible for road transport and safety and environmental services, and represent the county nationally and internationally.
The mayor will also meet directly with Government at least four times a year to update on the progress of the office and its work.
There was much debate about the powers of the mayor. Sinn Féin in particular believes that the powers of the office fall short of real powers.
They also believed the office as underpinned by the legislation is not what people voted for.
During debates on the Bill, it was criticised for not having powers in policing or tourism development.
Nevertheless, it has been finalised and signed into law.
So, let us look at the candidates who have put their names forward for this historic first-time office.
Helen O’Donnell
Businesswoman Helen O’Donnell ran a very successful café and catering business at the Hunt Museum for many years and was also involved in a lot of community and voluntary activities in business, the arts and education over the years.
She was active in Tidy Towns activities and was on the Mary Immaculate College governing body and the forum for peace and reconciliation.
She is standing as an independent cross-community candidate, but her Fine Gael gene pool is well known.
Ms O’Donnell was married to the late Tom O’Donnell, a former Fine Gael TD and MEP, who served as minister for the Gaeltacht in the 1970s.
She had been a member of Fine Gael for several decades and was in fact approached by the party in the past to stand for election but declined.
She was a member of Fine Gael up to last Sunday night, just hours before she declared her candidacy, and proposed outgoing MEP Sean Kelly as a Fine Gael candidate for the European Elections for the South region.
Dee Ryan
Dee Ryan was the former CEO of Limerick Chamber and also has an established and corporate background.
She is the Fianna Fáil nominee and was pictured with party leader Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Limerick’s quayside on Monday evening as she was declared as their candidate.
She has represented the business community over the past eight years and served on several Government taskforces including the Shannon Estuary taskforce and the implementation advisory taskforce for the office of the directly-elected mayor for which she is now standing.
In a statement, she said her political views and loyalties have evolved, and that she was very impressed with Mr Martin’s leadership, particularly during the Covid-19 crisis.
And despite being a member of a number of political parties in the past, she feels Fianna Fáil is now the perfect fit for her.
John Moran
John Moran was the former general secretary of the Department of Finance under Michael Noonan and was also head of the Land Development Agency.
He is a lawyer by profession and has extensive experience in politics and public life, working at the very top in both the Central Bank and European Investment Bank.
He describes himself as an urbanist and has been very vocal over the years on developing city centres as living spaces and having good urban and regional rail and transport services – which will undoubtedly be a feature of his vision for Limerick if the people give him the job.
Brian Leddin
First out of the traps in declaring his candidature was Brian Leddin, the sitting Green Party TD for Limerick city.
He is the party’s spokesperson on transport, energy and climate as well as an engineer by profession.
He wants to bring those skills to bear on pursuing a vision for the Mid West to develop it as an economic counterbalance to Dublin.
He wants to target development of more public transport and using the River Shannon for more wind energy.
Elisa O’Donovan
Elisa O’Donovan is the Social Democrats’ sitting councillor for Limerick city west and has now declared her intention to also seek election as mayor.
Born and raised in London, her family moved back to Limerick when she was a teenager.
She works in the health service sector and said she will bring her values of inclusion, equality, integrity and sustainability to the office to make Limerick a better place in which to live and work.
Ruairi Fahy
Ruairi Fahy is a first-time People Before Profit candidate who is standing for Limerick city north in the local elections and is also standing as the party’s representative for mayor.
This is Limerick’s chance for change, he believes, and has promised to be an activist mayor, living on a workers’ wage – the salary for the position will be €150,000.
He wants to work to give the people of Limerick direct control of their future and end Limerick being an afterthought in a national development policy that only focuses on the expansion of Dublin.
He believes the powers attributed to mayor are limited and if he was elected, he would work to expand those.
Other potential candidates
Fine Gael have not declared a candidate but it is understood that they are having a selection convention next week.
The party is almost on the back foot at this stage with no declared candidate and no particular individual emerging.
And when they do select a candidate, it could impact Helen O’Donnell, who will be expecting a lot of Fine Gael members to support her.
It is also expected that Labour’s Limerick city north councillor Conor Skeehan will seek his party’s nomination.
More names could emerge in the coming weeks and a lively campaign ahead over the next 12 weeks is assured.
