Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak about my town of Drogheda. When Deputy Alan Kelly was Minister with responsibility for local government, he stated in reply to a parliamentary question that he was satisfied Drogheda had a status appropriate to its size and location within Louth County Council. He said he had no proposals to introduce amending legislation to establish a new city authority in Drogheda or elsewhere. His colleague, a former Labour super-junior Minister in Cabinet at the time who is from Drogheda, said absolutely nothing and put up no fight for the town. He actively removed Drogheda's borough council. Labour was warned about this consequences time and again of removing local democracy or power from borough and town councils and setting up toothless municipal councils. We in Drogheda and Dundalk have had to put up with the mess created day in and day out since. Louth has the two largest towns in the State and neither has a council worth anything. Louth County Council treats Drogheda as an afterthought.

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