Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have a slight problem with amendment No. 90 but we will support amendment No. 91. If somebody is elected to the office of mayor of Limerick, it will be a brave person who will vote to take that individual out if they are directly elected by the people. It would have to be somebody who was totally incompetent or corrupt for everyone to be willing to agree to that. I would not be too concerned about the threshold for councillors in particular, and two thirds is okay on that basis. We do not support amendment No. 90 on the basis that it would be a brave councillor to take out a good directly elected mayor unless they were doing something particularly wrong.

I agree with amendment No. 91 and it is important to bring it down to two thirds, which is still a protection for a mayor. We do not want a new mayor to be taken out just because different parties do not like that person or whatever. That would be a good balance.