Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Seán Kyne, is most welcome. I am extremely concerned and, frankly, suspicious about the inordinate delays in the Drogheda boundary review process which was launched last year. As the Minister of State is aware, the previous Government conceded that the boundary between Drogheda and County Meath needed to be reviewed. The review was initially announced in June 2015 and the closing date for the receipt of submissions was 22 January 2016. Despite a nine-month gestation period, as it were, the baby has still not been delivered. In fact, the silence from the Government on the matter has been deafening.

The current situation is untenable and if the status quois allowed to continue, the Drogheda area will pay for it in missed economic opportunities, in particular. There are approximately 6,500 residents living in a small geographical area straddling the Louth-Meath border. Residents of large housing estates such as Highlands, Millmount Abbey and Grange Rath are supplied with local services by a distant local authority - not just in geographical terms - in Navan rather than one located one mile away on Fair Street in Drogheda. The areas on the Meath fringe are entirely contiguous with the urban edge of Drogheda, the largest town in the country that does not yet have the status of a city. In the delivery of sustainable services, sustainable planning principles and good governance, it is high time the situation was regularised.

Of most concern is the economic impact of this anomaly, particularly in terms of job creation, on the Drogheda area in general. The Meath fringe of Drogheda houses an IDA Ireland park that neighbours the N1 and is a 20-minute unimpeded drive from Dublin Airport but which has just one single resident, IFS State Street. There are at least two prospective investments in this, the best, IDA Ireland location in the country that have been held back and may be lost because of a lack of clarity on what the Government will do in the boundary process. One side of the road is in what was formerly known as the border, midlands and west, BMW, region, but the side of the road which houses the IDA Ireland park is not. For anyone who states they are interested in job creation, this anomaly needs to be addressed. For the Drogheda area, not just the town but the general area, to realise its full economic and social potential, the full and real extent of the town of Drogheda, including its environs in County Meath, needs to be officially recognised and formalised. The extension of the boundary needs to happen. Citizens, investors and decision makers need this clarity from the boundary commission and the Government sooner rather than later.