DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL have voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing the people of Dublin directly elect their own Lord Mayor.

Fifty councillors voted for the motion, one abstained and one councillor was absent.

Dublin’s Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn tweeted tonight that the next challenge will be whether there will be enough support in the other three Dublin councils.

Councils

The three other authorities will also hold votes on the issue in coming days. All four have to back the proposal for the plebiscite to go ahead, however — and it’s expected Fingal will veto the move.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie this evening, Councillor Mary Fitzpatrick said that the result showed that there was a strong need for a political leadership role for Dublin, but she said that despite tonight’s positive result, she believed they were still some way off from achieving the goal of an directly-elected mayor, stating that the minister had put an obstacle in the way of the proposal by introducing legislation that the majority of all four councils were in agreement.

“Having lived in New York I have seen first-hand the benefits to a city of having a directly-elected mayor,” she said, adding that it needs to coupled with local authority reform.

Related: Dublin councillors vote today on directly-elected mayor (but it’s likely plan will be scrapped)>