The Government plans to hold elections for directly elected mayors in every county, a Fine Gael minster has revealed.

Minister for State for Local Government John Paul Phelan also announced plans to introduce ‘recall elections’ which could see voters petition to remove a mayor from office.

Speaking to Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Mr Phelan said: “The ultimate objective here is that every local authority will have directly elected heads – a chair, mayor or whatever you want to call it.”

“Cork, Limerick and Waterford are the test grounds,” he added.

On May 24, voters in the three counties will be asked if they want a directly elected mayor who will have similar powers to a local authority chief executive.

Mr Phelan also told the podcast that recall elections, which were recently introduced in the UK, could be extended to the Dáil after they’re introduce for mayors.

This would mean TDs could be forced to fight a by-election for their seat if enough people sign a petition calling for them to be recalled.

Mr Phelan said the “safe guard measure” was being introduced for mayors as a test case.

Under the new system, a two thirds majority of councillors would also be able to remove a mayor if they had done “something completely off the wall,” the minister said.