Sinn Féin TD for Louth and East Meath Joanna Byrne has welcomed progress on the Local Government (Cities) Bill 2026, commonly referred to as the City Status Bill, which has now passed the first of five stages required to become law.
The proposed legislation aims to establish a pathway for towns such as Drogheda to be granted city status, an issue that has been the focus of a long running local campaign.
Addressing the Dáil, Deputy Byrne said “I stood for election on the platform of elevating City Status for Drogheda, and I’m particularly proud of this piece of work.
This is a seismic step forward for the long-standing Drogheda City Status Campaign and will at long last establish a mechanism for this to be done.
During the submission phases for Project Ireland 2040, the national planning framework and regional spatial and economic strategy, a massive number of submissions were made advocating for city status for Drogheda.
Lobby groups and local citizens did what the Government asked them to do to play their part in our democracy and they articulately and eloquently stated the case for city status. None of those submissions received the due consideration it should have.
The city status group met with many Ministers in many different Governments over the years and they presented the case for Drogheda’s city status. They outlined various difficulties the town was incurring because different parts of it were run by Louth County Council and Meath County Council, with no overall cohesive plan for the area.
We have two councils with no holistic plan for housing, infrastructure, transport, employment, and community and sporting amenities.
This has proven to choke progress and stifle the growth of the largest town in the country.
I firmly believe all elected representatives in Drogheda support this endeavour, including the government parties elected representatives, but sadly the political will hasn’t been in Government to deliver this, as of yet, despite virtue signalling from various Taoisígh and Ministers when they visit Drogheda.
So now we have an opportunity for long overdue consideration of Drogheda’s future and hopefully support from Govt to see our great City realise its full potential.
I look forward to this moving forward now to second stage.”
The Bill now proceeds to the next stage in the legislative process, where it will face further scrutiny and debate in the Dáil.
