Town has been identified as a ‘micro-city’ by Europe
The Drogheda City Status Group (DSCG) has welcomed the announcement that Drogheda has been identified as one of Europe’s emerging “micro-cities” in a report on European Cities and Regions of the future in the Financial Times’s FDI Magazine ahead of the launch of the M1 Corridor, an initiative to attract investment into the Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry region.
“For over ten years, DSCG has been campaigning for city status for Drogheda. Now with the endorsement of a prestigious international business publication, both Local and National Government and State agencies – and their political masters - need to waken up to what the Greater Drogheda area can offer to both overseas and indigenous investors. As part of that, they need to tackle the fractured nature of our catchment, split between Louth and Meath and managed in distant Dundalk and Navan as well as two IDA Regional Offices” said Anna McKenna, DSCG Secretary.
The Greater Drogheda area – including the agglomeration of Laytown-Mornington-Bettystown - has seen some of the most rapid population growth in the State, with the outer catchment now having a population of over 80,000 – soon to become a city.
“We have great people, unrivalled infrastructure in terms of convenient road; rail; sea and air access as well as Ireland’s fastest broadband service,” said Anna, adding “but too many of our people have to make long commutes to find work or study in Dublin, creating a significant social, economic and environmental cost for the families involved. As a result, Drogheda suffers from the greatest daily exodus of working age population of any large urban centre in Ireland and this also impacts on both the vibrancy of the central area and loss of business for Drogheda retailers.”