It’s time to stop blaming Dundalk for all our woes
Dear Sir,
BEAR with me a brief moment while I go round the block a wee bit before getting to the point of this missal. Cast you mind back to the days when we were told to tell the truth and shame the devil.
You know when children were asked if they had done something naughty and parents told them to admit what they had done and nothing would happen. A lesson was learned. a closed mouth did not get a slap in the puss and don’t trust parents not to tell a lie. The other catch all of parents was, “if ??? put their hand in the fire would you” which basically can mean don’t blindly follow others.
Mayor Godfrey, in reality he is only Chairman of the Borough Council, the title Mayor is just that a title. He can call himself the Drogheda Holy Roman Emperor or Tsar if he wants. He is, in terms of status, a step below the Chairperson of Louth County Council and on par with with the Mayor of Ardee who is Chair of the Ardee Town Commissioners. This degrading of the Council occurred under the Fine Gael/ Labour Government of which Deputy O’Dowd and the then Deputy Nash were members.
Colr. Godfrey has suggested that Louth County Council employ an Events Manager to organise tourist attracting activities to Drogheda while at the same time voting to reduce the town budget. Let us stop and think for a moment.
There will be less money in the kitty and the Councillor wants to spend more money on an unnecessary appointment. Louth C.E.O. and L.C.C. have nothing to prove, in partnership with the Voluntary and Commercial sector they helped deliver a very successful Fleadh despite some politicians trying to shove their oars in. . A pity that the Councillor did not learn a few basic Irish phrases for his Fleadh speech such as Failte go Droichead Àtha.
The Councillor is not the only one who voted to reduce the budget. Colr. Callan is to the fore in proclaiming the reduction in Parking Fees as a victory. The sort of victory one gets when cutting off your nose to stop it running. If it is a Euro an hour in Dundalk why should we pay more here. Well we have, at the moment, two free public car parks Dundalk does not. So if you work in town and find yourself paying for previously free parking blame the six Councillors who voted to charge you for parking. Of course you probably don’t vote is Drogheda so who cares.
Drogheda aspires to be a City with control over our own budget and governance. I am in favour of it as an ideal, however in reality taking into consideration the attitude of some of our present Councillors towards budgeting the new City of Drogheda would be bankrupt in jig time.
Why do we look to Dundalk when formulating policies for Drogheda. Have our Councillors no ideas of their own. If the Dundalk Councillors decide to put their hands in the fire should we follow suit. Everything bad that happens in Drogheda is blamed on Dundalk. Can the Borough Council not take responsibility for their own actions or inactions.
I am proud of my town, its history, architecture and people but I am slowly coming to the view that Oliver Cromwell was right when he addressed the Rump Parliament in 1653, “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
Abolish the Borough Council. Save the salaries and expenses paid to Councillors. One wonders how they would vote if the budget cuts applied to their Council incomes.
Yours, Gerry Floyd.