Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said, this is a very important debate. What I am really talking about is the future of the greater Drogheda area, which has a population, by any projection, be they those of the Department or our own community, definitely in excess of the 50,000 persons which is the requirement to be a city. What has the greater Drogheda area got that will attract the decision of the Government and attract inward investment? We have high capacity broadband, the best in the country, which runs right through our town. We have top class motorway connections and a rail connection. We also have some infrastructural deficits which can and will be met by city investment. For instance, the Drogheda northern cross route, which is an access route for thousands of houses which have been in design and planning for a long time, could be constructed if the funding is found nationally to assist in its construction. To link up the north and south, we need a new bridge on the east of the town, which would link up the port and port developments to east Meath and right out onto the motorway.

Obviously, most of all, we need a town manager or a manager for what I will call the GDA, the greater Drogheda area. If we put in place a CEO with the salary of the chief executive of a county council to manage the greater Drogheda area, working with and associating with a new initiative of the managers in both Meath and Louth, it could be an imaginative solution in terms of finding a way around the impasse about extending boundaries. I personally would have no problem extending the boundary. The population is expanding and it is clear the population needs will only be met by proper, single decisive authority for this area. It is a question of developing that through the process to which I have referred, and a city manager will make all the difference.

We have other infrastructure requirements. There is no LEO for the 60,000 people who live in the area and such an office would add to the capacity of the town to assist in job creation.

I would add that Drogheda has a vision. The Mill in Drogheda has a vision for our business people. The proposed M1 payments corridor is an example of the potential enterprise and job growth that can be achieved in Drogheda and the greater area. I feel it is a very attractive location for FinTech companies. There are many local players who are looking at how Drogheda and the whole corridor could develop in this sector. I very much welcome the discussions around that issue locally, and I hope they will be listened to nationally.

The plan for our area can only be decided by the people of the area. The centre of gravity and decision making in Meath is in Navan, and in Louth it is in Dundalk. However, Drogheda, which is the biggest town, does not currently have the necessary local government decision making infrastructure.

When we talk about Navan, Tralee, Wexford or places like Sligo each and every one of them is smaller than Drogheda but they all have something that Drogheda does not have. They have a local based county council, a decision-making body which is in the centre and heart of their community. We do not have that in Drogheda where we do not have a council or a borough council. It was done away with in the past and I believe that it must come back. I know that there are plans for changes in our local government reform, and hand-in-hand with our national planning framework changes there must be increased capacity of local government and changes in local government to allow decision-making locations like Drogheda become true and proper administrative cities where they can do their business.

I believe the whole community in the Drogheda and in the greater Drogheda area are behind this plan. Our business people and all our political parties are signing up to the proposal that Drogheda must be part of this plan. I welcome the fact that the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, of which I am a member, today agreed to recommend to the Minister that Drogheda would be included, either as part of a linear city with Dundalk and Newry or as a stand-alone separate city.

I am glad the Minister of State is in the Chamber and is listening to what we are saying. Bad planning has been responsible for the appalling planning mess in which east Meath ended up. Good planning would bring east Meath and Drogheda and south Louth together in a new, decisive city that could serve all of the people in the area very well.

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