No more fudge - but a city would be sweet

Dear Sir,

“PROJECT 2040 secures Drogheda’s future”, so says the headline in the various media advertorials issued by the Fine Gael Party and featuring our local TD Fergus O’Dowd. If this is deemed as a victory by our local TD, I would hate to see what a defeat would entail!

As a member of Drogheda City Status committee I would like to present to the 83,000 citizens of the greater Drogheda area the actual facts of the ” 2040 Plan” and the fiction that it represents anything other than a fudge to Ireland’s 5th largest population centre.

Let me explain:

1 After 10 years of hard work, with the help of Dr Brian Hughes, Drogheda City Status delivered an evidence based “Presentation” to the Government to support their claim for City Status and a proper administrative governance for Ireland’s largest town and agglomerated East Meath Region.

2 Minister Coveney met with the Drogheda City Status Group and assured them that unlike the previous discredited Plan of 2002 (which ignored Drogheda ) the NPF 2040 Plan would be evidence based. An evidence plan was supplied and I feel betrayed in light of the publication of the NPF 2040.

3 The various scraps presented in the NPF 2040 Plan as major achievements by the Fine Gael Party and Fergus O’Dowd, such as the dart, flood management and new ambulance base in Ardee. Sports capital grants are merely re-hashed plans already announced - there is nothing new in them. The recognition of the town’s and region’s population of 83,000 was ignored and our people abandoned to a 3 tier development for the next 20 years.

4 No disrespect to Sligo or Athlone but Sligo had struggled to maintain a population of 19,000 over many years while Drogheda’s population has exploded by over 80 % in the period 1996 to 2016 yet Sligo is deemed a regional city.

5 The North East has been left bereft of a regional hub in spite of Drogheda having a greater population than Waterford and Drogheda being the biggest population centre in the North East - far in excess of Dundalk.

6. Under the watch of the present crop of politicians Drogheda has suffered the imposition of a toll, the building of an IDA park in another county, the abolition of our Council, the diversion of massive grants to Dundalk because of its designation as a Gateway Hub. Garda districts split in three and no proper water infrastructure. Etc, etc, etc.

7 I invite the public to read Dr Hughes report on Drogheda city Status Facebook…… Its findings with regard to the management and manipulation of the population figures visa Dundalk could only be described as gerrymandering figures to undermine the status of Drogheda for Dundalk’s benefit. The evidence is there to see and to date the Government has ignored this and has not rebutted it in any manner.

8. The draft version of this NPF 2040 Plan was accessed by Dundalk and additions made to enhance Dundalk’s position –in my view this NPF document is totally discredited and illegal.

9 To have our local TD, Fergus O’Dowd, champion this 2040 document as a victory for Drogheda is a disgrace and the flying visit of Minister Murphy for a photo call and a 20 second PR video is shambolic as his refusal to meet City Status representatives last November after a pre-arranged appointment is symbolic of the Government’s attitude to our city.

10 To all Drogheda and East Meath residents, be suckers no more, we have been taken for fools for long enough - time for action and local democracy is imminent.

Yours, Peter Monahan, Drogheda City Status committee.