Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for that response, even if it is not exactly the one I was looking for. At the same time this is a wider discussion that needs to be had. We know that it will take legislation and the Minister of State mentioned some of the precedents with Limerick City and County Council and Cork City Council, and Dublin County Council being divided into the three local authorities of Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. There are examples. We are not looking for a precedent to be set, but at the same time we have a huge and burgeoning demographic. We are looking at 7,500 new houses, which brings 25,000 in new population to this area, and we do not have our own local governance. We are being governed from north of the county and from Navan, which is far away from east Meath and south Louth. We need to look, as the Minister of State mentioned, at a wider discussion of how this will be looked at going forward. The current situation cannot stand, and I noticed in the programme for Government that we are keen to get local government back on our books and maybe look at a borough council, town council, town manager or city manager for Drogheda.