Given that there are now several ministers with remits for rural affairs, however inadequately defined, it was inevitable that Taoiseach Enda Kenny would be urged to appoint a “Minister for Dublin”. With some 40 per cent of the population residing in the Greater Dublin Area (including Meath, Kildare and Wicklow), the case was made initially on these pages by Una Mullally that only a cabinet minister could grapple with multifarious problems afflicting the capital and articulate a coherent vision of the future.

It is probably inevitable in a highly-centralised State such as ours that we always look to government to provide solutions, rather than to the local authorities – especially as the governance of Dublin is split between four of them. Indeed, as Mullally noted, there is “a feeling that no one is in charge of the city”. This absence of civic leadership was supposed to be addressed by having a directly elected mayor, with wide powers to set an agenda for housing, planning and transport, and see to it such an agenda is implemented.

But Phil Hogan, the same minister primarily responsible for the Irish Water debacle before he departed for greater things in Brussels, made sure it couldn’t happen by giving each of the four Dublin local authorities a veto over whether there would be a citywide plebiscite on the issue – and Fingal County Council said no. This shameless ruse scuppered a directly-elected mayor, much to the satisfaction of central government and senior civil servants who are determined that no such alternative power centre would be permitted.

This type of thinking is almost neanderthal in a world where cities are the most important engines of national economies and must increasingly compete against each other for inward investment. Arguably, most Irish cities will be in close proximity when rapid rail links are established in coming decades. The programme for government makes no mention of resuscitating the idea of having a directly-elected mayor of Dublin. It seems clear this can only happen on foot of strong public demand for the creation of such a post. It is time for that campaign to get under way.