Mayor demands restoration of body and blasts labour’s role in decision
THE mayor of ireland’s biggest town has demanded the restoration of its borough council and hit out at the Labour party for abolishing it.
Cllr Frank Godfrey said Brendan Howlin’s party must undo the damage they did to local democracy in Drogheda, Co Louth, when it backed the Fine Gael move to abolish the authority.
Last week the Labour Party said councils may be reinstated in many Irish towns if its new Bill passes through the Oireachtas in September.
Cllr Godfrey told the Irish Mirror the onus is now on Labour to bring back what they shouldn’t have removed.
He said: “They took away local democracy which was a scandal so they have a moral obligation to help bring it back.
“They shouldn’t be trying to make political capital out of it because what they did was outrageous. It’s scandalous Ireland’s biggest town, which has a population of over 41,000 people and a hinterland of up to 100,000, has no council. Other big towns are in a similar position.
“Taking away the borough council was the worst decision ever inflicted on the town of Drogheda by the Fine Gael/ Labour Government.”
The proposal to scrap the age-old local assemblies was taken by the last Government in 2013 – of which Labour was a part – and implemented in 2014.
Frank Godfrey But the drive to scrap all of the country’s 80 town councils and associated 700 councillors was spearheaded by former Fine Gael Minister Phil Hogan, who is now Ireland’s European Commissioner in Brussels. The new Bill would see councils brought back for all towns with a population of over 5,000 people or 1,000 homes. Mr Godfrey added: “We are standing up and fighting for your town. I’ve organised a number of protest pickets on the Dail and have written to Phil Hogan who was a nightmare for a number of boroughs around the country.
“What they [current Government] are saying is there is only going to be one council, that’s Louth County Council, Kilkenny Country Council or whatever. “Everything after that are tokens. We don’t even have our own town crest which we had for hundreds of years.
“The crest of Louth is not the crest of Drogheda.
“It’s an insult to the people of Drogheda. The Labour Party are a bit late in the day with this.
“They should have stood up and be counted in 2014 when they took our borough council away.”
Year proposal to scrap borough councils in Ireland was taken