City status must be top of new government’s agenda for town

The Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) has welcomed the end of the uncertainty regarding the formation of a Government and has called for urgent action to address several critical issues in the Greater Drogheda Region, affecting the 80,000 people in the wider catchment of Ireland’s next city.

“Top of these needs are accelerating the long overdue Port Access Northern Cross Route to enable the construction of almost 5,000 new homes and enhance the business potential of the port and the adjacent area; the establishment of an IDA Business Park with facilities appropriate to the Post Covid-19 era including locating IDA; Enterprise Ireland and LEO staff there to co-ordinate job creation in the Greater Drogheda Region and the creation of a new Local Authority structure that would see a senior management team based in Drogheda co-ordinating key functions such as housing; heritage and planning for the future city instead of Drogheda being managed by local authority staff headquartered in - and generally living - in Dundalk and Navan,” said Anna McKenna, Chairperson of the DCSG.

DCSG is concerned that as CSO prepares for Census 2021, National and Local Government needs to be much more advanced in planning forward for the emerging City of Drogheda. Incredibly, they note that population projections for the current version of the “Ireland 2040 Plan” only deal with the five cities of Dublin; Cork; Limerick; Galway and Waterford. “For so many reasons, including tackling pockets of social deprivation, all politicians in Drogheda; South Louth and East Meath need to combine forces and demand fair play for the Greater Drogheda Region from the incoming Government. We have a new Mayor and a relatively new council, and we concur with Councillor Paddy McQuillan that the three Drogheda TDs also need to work together for the common good, along with the two recently appointed Senators from East Meath,” she adds. “Business and Community organisations across the Greater Drogheda

Region also need to come together to demand change. We have been ignored for far too long. We have a young, growing and talented population who deserve the opportunity to secure good, local employment. We can offer businesses an unrivalled location and infrastructure. We have the potential to be the most green and heritage rich city in Ireland, that offers an exceptional lifestyle, adjacent to the coast. But we have been denied reaching our full potential by political and policy obstructions. It’s time to change all that,”