Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. This is a hugely important issue in my town, the area around Drogheda and the whole county. The latest census of population shows that Drogheda is now the biggest town in the country outside the major cities. The difference in population between Waterford city and Drogheda is less than 7,000, yet we have no proper local council and no local control, although there has been a huge influx of new citizens into the town. We have a huge need for housing and local infrastructure. We need the confidence of the people to be expressed through local democracy. The reforms which took place are not working. Power has moved from the borough council to the county council. That is no reflection on any of the wonderful officials who work in the county council, but it is a huge reflection on the lack of accountability and local control. We need control over planning and road infrastructure. We also need to invest more in town estates in the provision of footpaths and green spaces. We need more sports centres. Every single penny collected in property tax in Drogheda and district should be spent locally. Change is needed and it is happening, but there must be local control. That is the key point.

In its wisdom, the county council recently decided to spend €12 million on new local government offices in Drogheda. That money could be much better spent on infrastructure to improve estates and sports facilities. The town is crying out for investment and support. We have no IDA Ireland and no Enterprise Ireland office and no institute of technology. This week we have been told we are losing the Millmount development centre. Small as it is, it has the capacity to provide 24 hot desks for people who want to create their own businesses. Giving Drogheda city status is long overdue. It looks like, however, that we will not have a driving test centre, as I proposed some time ago, as there is some local political opposition to the site on which I thought we could work. We also have no local employment office. Decisions are made by people who do not live and work in Drogheda. I accept that the Minister is not in the job long and did not introduce the last item of legislation. It was introduced by another Government which we both supported. It was, however, wrong and does not work. We want local control and want it now.

I will speak for four minutes. The last time I spoke I was shut down because there was another Deputy who wanted to speak also. Narrow West Street in Drogheda is disintegrating and falling down. It is as if a bomb struck it. The town centre is dying because planning permission was given for out-of-town shopping centres, some of which are in the adjoining county. We need a rates base in Drogheda and to change the way things are done. A commission was set up to look at extending the borough boundaries, but the Minister had no influence on the decision. The recommendation was against increasing the capacity to govern locally. It was not a bad decision made by the Minister but a bad recommendation. Local government is not working and people are losing out. Everywhere I go they want to know what is being done and changing. Nothing is changing, apart from the population is getting bigger and demands are growing. I look forward to hearing the Minister's reply.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Local government areas are specified in primary legislation. Section 12 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014 states the State is divided into local government areas known counties and cities and cities and counties. The Local Government Act 2001, as amended, provides for three cities - Cork, Dublin and Galway - and for each of them to have a city council. If an additional city council were to be established in law, it would have significant implications for the county in which the area concerned was situated, particularly with regard to the loss of functions of the relevant county council. This would, in fact, be the reverse of actions taken under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 which saw the integration of two existing city councils, Limerick and Waterford, with populations of 87,000 and 47,000, respectively, into two new stronger and better resourced city and county councils. In both cases, the description "city" continues to apply to their status as major urban centres. That status is in no way diminished by the fact that they no longer have separate local authorities. On the contrary, all of the indications are that both have progressed significantly in the past few years, not least in terms of economic activity. If Drogheda were to be considered for such a fundamental change in local government arrangements, as suggested in the Topical Issue, it would have wide-ranging implications not only for Louth County Council but also for Meath County Council. While a rigorous examination would be needed if a proposal to upgrade to city status was contemplated by the Government, it is possible to identify likely implications at a broad level, including, legal, financial, organisational and possibly electoral consequences, all of which would require careful and detailed analysis.

The town of Drogheda has recently been the subject of a local authority boundary review, as the Deputy mentioned. In June 2015 an independent statutory committee was appointed to carry out a review of local government boundaries in Athlone, Carlow, Drogheda and Waterford. In each case the committee was asked to carry out a review of the boundary between the respective local authorities and make recommendations with respect to those boundaries and any consequential matter it considered necessary in the interests of effective local government. The main rationale for undertaking the boundary reviews is that in each case there is a significant overspill of population into another county based on the population figures taken from the 2011 census. In the case of Drogheda, the town has expanded significantly into County Meath, with a population of nearly 6,000 reported as being located in County Meath in the 2011 census, which represents nearly 16% of the total population of the town and environs of 38,578. The report of the Drogheda boundary committee was submitted on 16 February 2017 and did not recommend, as the Deputy said, an extension of the boundary.

I have been to Drogheda a number of times and I am more than aware of the pressures on the town and the pace at which the population is growing and the need for both local and national government to respond to that pace of growth through the provision of social, community and quality of life infrastructure. Part of it has to involve good local governance. We have looked and are continuing to look at restructuring local government in Cork, Galway, Waterford and south Kilkenny. During these processes we will learn lessons and find better ways to govern in areas that have more than one boundary.

We also need to learn lessons in the context of the continued growth of Drogheda.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's acknowledgement of the issues relating to Drogheda and its environs. The fact is that Drogheda was turned down by the independent commission but that commission was absolutely wrong. Drogheda had a borough council from 1169 until its abolition in recent times. We need to get that council back and to have local control. Local debates would previously have taken place at borough council meetings, attended by local authority management and the public but that has all gone. There is no local debate now. Indeed, there is no local council, full stop and that is where the reforms were absolutely wrong.

The Government should restore a council to the town of Drogheda and its environs, with real power and real accountability. Longford has a population of approximately 40,000. It has a county manager and all of the infrastructure necessary for a county council but it has a smaller population than the town of Drogheda. Leitrim has a population of only 30,000 and yet it has the infrastructure that Drogheda so badly needs. Huge decisions must be made here. There is enough work in Drogheda and its environs to keep a full-time manager busy, 24/7 and that is what the people want.

The Minister has said that he is looking at a number of issues relating to other cities and towns. He called Kilkenny a city but it only has a population of about 25,000. There are 15,000 more people living in the town of Drogheda than in Kilkenny. While I appreciate it does not have its own city council, Kilkenny derives a certain amount of status from being called a city. We need to acknowledge the importance and worth of Drogheda, which is the biggest town in Ireland after Waterford. It needs a professional political base which it does not currently have. I urge the Minister to publish his report at the earliest opportunity and look forward to engaging with him on it.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the pace of growth of Drogheda. There is a series of reasons for that growth, including its proximity to Dublin and to international connections through Dublin Airport and the fact that it has provided an affordable option for home buyers. It has also built a big economy in its own right and is a regional driver in its own right. However, I do not think the solution here is to recreate city councils, even in cities like Waterford and Limerick, where we have now created City and County Councils. That said, there is merit in looking at how Drogheda as a town is managed and by whom. At the moment, a significant proportion of the population is in one county, managed by the local authority in Meath, while the rest of the town, the majority of which is in County Louth, is managed by a different local authority. In those circumstances, it is very difficult to plan strategically, in terms of business, community development, planning and zoning, commercial rates and so on, for the expansion of a town that may at some point in the future become a city when there are two local authorities involved. I have made a clear decision on the boundary issues of Waterford and Kilkenny. We are not changing county boundaries there because there are all sorts of emotions involved in a decision like that. There are flags, GAA clubs, history and so on involved and asking a Kilkenny person to become a Waterford person or Louth person to become a Meath person will not work politically. However, we need to be able to re-evaluate governance structures to ensure that towns and urban conurbations can actually be managed as single entities in the context of their expansion. That is the context in which we need to look at the future of Drogheda.