The Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) are today attending a meeting of the Dail Petitions Committee who will consider the case for Drogheda being declared
Ireland’s next city. Back in November 2017, DCSG lodged a comprehensive submission to the Petitions Committee.
Drogheda-LBM’s (Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington) absolute population growth was only exceeded by Dublin & Cork between 1996 and 2016 – and exceeds the combined growth of Dundalk/Blackrock; Athlone; Letterkenny & Sligo (the other Regional Growth Centres identified in Ireland 2040).
The 2016 Census is already obsolete for Drogheda. The 2016-2018 Housing Completions released by CSO on 7.2.2019 place Greater Drogheda almost on par with Limerick (1,238 units .v. 1,205 units) – and almost equal to the COMBINED units for Dundalk (686) and Waterford (591) combined. Those 1,205 housing units will have already added a multiple of this to the local population.
“The “Northern Environs Plan” for Drogheda which is of National Strategic importance given it will provide thousands of much needed new homes in the current housing crisis has been inextricably EXCLUDED from both Ireland 2040 and the Rural & Urban Regeneration Funds.
The pace of growth and size of Drogheda is incontrovertible, and its status and Local Government structures need to be urgently addressed to ensure its orderly growth as it becomes Ireland’s next city, and the first in Leinster outside Dublin,” said Anna McKenna Secretary of the Drogheda City Status Group.
Several speakers at an RIAI Architects Symposium in Drogheda in 2015 predicted a population of c.250,000 for the Greater Drogheda area by 2050. Already, in the wider catchment, the population exceeds 80,000.
However, with the Louth-Meath border dividing Drogheda and its environs, Drogheda is in effect fractured into two towns rather than one city – and unlike Dundalk-Blackrock, not formally connected to it’s natural catchment, especially LBM (Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington).
Conflicting policies on the part of the two County Councils; the absence of local Government (senior staff driving tourism; economic development etc. are based in either Dundalk or Navan) and the lack of a local IDA; Enterprise Ireland and LEO presence all contribute to the lack of (esp.) FDI locally, leading to one of provincial Ireland’s largest daily exodus of working age population, mainly to Dublin. For those involved, this creates a serious social, financial and environmental cost, and their absence also adversely affects local commerce and the vibrancy of the centre of Ireland’s fifth largest urban centre.
Compounding this is the fact that the county boundary in Drogheda results in Drogheda Co.Meath and Drogheda Co.Louth being served by different IDA and Enterprise Ireland Regional offices – and in our view, the lack of FDI locally (despite Drogheda’s exceptional attractiveness that includes easy access to air, sea, road and rail services as well as Ireland’s fastest broadband) confirms Drogheda is not accorded “Priority Status” by either IDA office.
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