In an excellent recent post on Linked, "Ignore the Noise - What does Limerick really need from a Directly Elected Mayor?" Ingenium CEO James Ring started the ball rolling with the skills he expects the best candidate for mayor of Limerick to bring to the table.  He instanced (a) Humilty, (b) Passion, (c) Vision, (d) Intelligence, (e) Inclusion, (f) Walk the walk not talk the talk, (g) Common Sense, and (h) Independence.

James picked a great list of soft skills but, in my opinion, it does not just stop there. The role demands many equally important hard skills too if we are to see it deliver #MoreForLimerick

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I have long supported this role change for Limerick for over 5 years now. 

I have therefore thought long and hard about what skills I believe the role needs to be transformative and bring the kind of change I believe is needed to deliver #MoreForLimerick.  

Other candidates might emerge who are well qualified. But, I, for one, feel confident that, in submitting my name to the public of Limerick, I have collected over my professional life and training, the right mix of soft and hard skills so as to be well suited to the new executive role. 

It is why I, like James, believe that there is a risk candidates may underestimate the demands of the new role or are participating in the election simply for other reasons other than believing they are best qualified to do a good job.   

Soft skills like those James has identified are important to deliver in the role.  But a lack of the right hard skills to accompany those soft skills may well be the contributing factor to making some really bad mistakes which could be very costly for Limerick and its people.

For more read more here:- The Difference between hard skills and soft skills of leadership

The following thoughts are submitted from a perspective influenced by my own years working at central government and with government department and agencies. That has informed what I see the role to be and what it can become with the right collection of skills - soft and hard - in the candidates.

My conclusions are also reinforced from time in my roles on the EU stage watching good governance in other countries and cities and approving billions of lending to cities all over the world for investment in their infrastructure and enterprise supports.   

In attacking this question, I recall all the general functions of the CEO which are transferring to the Mayor. These include if I understand the new legislation well:-

1. Working out the right priorities and juggling to find money for same in the annual budget of LCCC for approval by the Councillors - that is a 1.4 BILLION budget with 250 million on current and 457 capital in 2024 alone to be spent in Limerick.  Making final decisions on rates and LPT levels, on which priorities of rural development, housing, roads, street cleaning, cultural, public realm etc. should get more or less money for the budget to go to the Councillors.  Dealing with the consequences of any underspend or worse over spend. 
2. Managing delivery (on budget and on time) of 1.3 BILLION of capital projects over the years 2024-202
3. Acting as shareholder (and therefore directing the boards and dividend policies of and the strategic performance and direction) of Limerick 2030 and its projects in Cleeves, Opera, Mungret etc.
4. Allocating budget for and across a staff of nearly 1,400 staff all working hard on their own tasks
5. Advocating for and deciding on strategy for economic development of Limerick and working with industry, education, and other stakeholders to get positive results

Then on top of this the mayor now has many other new responsibilities too which we are not used to managing at all in Limerick's existing team:-

1. Sitting in a room with ALL Government Ministers, navigating the dynamics of such a room to get what Limerick needs and offer recommendations (and presumably negotiate outcomes) on any proposed legislation of government affecting Limerick
2. Getting agreement at that meeting on new proposals (to come from the Mayor) on how better to fund Limerick's development and what additional powers to transfer to the mayor
3. Chairing a high level Advisory and Implementation Committee for Limerick - essentially replacing Denis Brosnan whose hugely impressive CV we all know and chairing discssions among people like those on the soon to be disbanded Limerick Economic Forum
4. Chairing a committee involving the CEO of Clare, the new DG of Limerick, the Director of the Southern Regional Assembly to drive delivery of the National Planning Framework, the National Development Plan, the Limerick Development Plan, LSMATS, the social and economic regeneration measures, water and transport, large scale housing, cultural development, rural development, promotion or employment, enterprise and tourism and more
5. Deciding on the contents of the mayoral programme setting out the key objectives and priorities for Limerick for the next five years.
6. And much more juggling of tasks, given all of the ceremonial and representative roles too which gives not too much time for learning on the job.

So for me, therefore, among the hard skills I'd like to see to supplement James' list:-

1. in the midst of our current housing crisis I'd like someone who understands intimately housing policy and markets and how to deliver units at a scale of the type we've not seen in Limerick in decades;
2. with billions of new infrastructure yet to be funded, I'd like someone who understands how 100's of millions if not billions can be raised and paid back from government, EU and private funding sources;
3. with public realm and housing and new neighbourhoods to be built quickly and well to deal with growing populations, I'd like someone who intimately understands and has studied spatial planning and design
4. with a critical lack of jobs in or unemployment black spots and even for our current graduates, I'd like someone who knows and has a track record of how economic growth and jobs can be generated in scale;
5. with new development plans and southern regional assembly RSES to be concluded mid-term, I'd like someone with a keen knowledge of government policy and strategy and trends in the relevant areas and how to position Limerick's needs and negotiate them for these key documents;
6. as we live in a yet divided city with too many unemployment blackspots and deprivation, I'd like someone who has a keen understanding of the problems faced by those communities and the type of new solutions which could work better that what we've been doing for decades 
7. as all of this costs serious amounts of money, I'd like someone who knows how to squeeze the last euro of value out of, and otherwise use risk transfer techniques to get much more delivery out of, the existing budgets of the scale LCCC and Limerick 2030 has to deal with;
8. as the future is always uncertain and the hardest and less obvious decisions come to be made to a lonely place at the leader at the top, I'd like someone with a track record of negotiation skills to get more for Limerick, a track record of calling it right when the hard decisions need to be made and the future is unsure and an established personal network of the best brains which can be brought to those decisions to make sure we do not go down the wrong path, and
9. most of all I'd like someone who knows from experience how to take advantage of best governance and management techniques, boards, chairs, CEO, and committees to transparently deliver all we need in a complex web of interacting priorities.

Is that really too much to ask for?

If you do not believe me, here's what a former mayor had to say on the topic -- Skills of a mayor:-