Cabra councillor looks forward to Mayor role

CABRA man Brendan Carr who was elected as new Lord Mayor of Dublin last month is looking forward to using his new role to help tackle some of the city’s most pressing problems.

Carr replaces outgoing Mayor, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, and while he’s complimentary of the Sinn Fein councillor’s term in the Mansion House, there are a few issues the city’s new first citizen feels the council can improve on.

“The biggest issue for all of us at the moment is the homelessness and housing crisis,” Carr told Northside People.

“That has to be addressed and we have spoken twice now to Minister for the Environment, Simon Coveney. We’re the largest housing authority in the country. That is out primary function, to try and get people housed and kept safe.

“But when we try to do something we seem to have to get the Department of Environment to ensure it falls in line with them, and that’s causing delays. It’s frustrating and the issue is nearly being used as a football.

“I’m trying to get the Minister to say ‘Look, you look after it, you deal with it and the buck stops with you. We’ll give you the important financial mechanisms, providing you can justify it, and you go ahead and fix the problem.’”

Also high up on the new Mayor’s agenda is making Dublin a ‘Living Wage City’. Carr would like to see the majority of businesses in the city agree to pay workers a minimum living wage of €11.50 per hour and if they agreed to subscribe to revamped pay structures, he believes the Dublin economy and local businesses would both benefit as a result.

“I want to make Dublin a Living Wage City as they’ve done in London and other cities around Europe,” Carr added.

“We’ve made some progress and we’ve a meeting next Wednesday in which we’re bringing in the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and Congress [Trade Union]. The Living Wage generates more money and people who earn more money, spend more money. They spend it more openly and everything grows as a result. That’s a big initiative for us.”

The new mayor also wants see the introduction of a one per cent bed tax on visitors using hotels, more funding for arts projects around the city and a plan to re-integrate criminals looking to break away from a life of crime.

Carr points to a re-integration initiative in Los Angeles where a re-integration program had a 93 per cent success rate, and he believes the same progress can be made in Dublin.

The former trade union official has a lot he wants to achieve in a very short period of time, but insists that it’s advice that was once given to him by his late mother that inspires him to be so ambitious.

“My mam passed away last year and it kind of hit us all a little hard; it wasn’t something we were expecting but my mam always said to me ‘no matter how well you do, if someone needs help you shouldn’t be happy.’

“No matter what the situation is, if someone is less fortunate than you, you shouldn’t be happy.”

They’re words to live by for Carr, and a motto he will undoubtedly look to stick by during his reign as the 347th Lord Mayor of Dublin.

REPORT: Jack O’Toole