by Brian Hanratty, Community Campaigner for Greater Drogheda
Call for Spare Offices in Drogheda to Be Used to Drive Local Economic Development
Louth County Council is being urged to assign available office space in Drogheda to support local economic development and job creation across the wider region.
Community campaigner for Drogheda, South Louth and East Meath, Brian Hanratty has called on Louth and Meath County Councils, along with local and national public representatives, to secure Government support to allocate surplus offices in the new Civic Centre at Fair Street.
He has proposed that the space be used to house a team representing the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, both Louth and Meath Local Enterprise Offices and Louth’s Economic Development Unit.
“Given decades of neglect, Drogheda urgently needs its own locally based IDA; Enterprise Ireland; LEO and other local job creation resources.”
Hanratty said that while Louth County Council has received recognition for its response to housing challenges, there is now an urgent need to focus on employment.
“Louth Co. Council have received accolades for responding to the housing challenge. Now they need to urgently respond to the lack of local employment. If they and the other State agencies tasked with employment creation continue to fail the Greater Drogheda area, then those moving into new housing locally will be forced to join the thousands already making long daily commutes out of the Drogheda area. Does anyone in Government understand the huge social; economic and environmental cost this places on local families and communities ?”
He also raised concerns around tourism and the continued use of a major Drogheda hotel for refugee accommodation, noting that the contract is now extended for another year.
“First time around the Green Party Minister and his civil servants may have been under pressure to execute a “quick fix” and the hotel provided that solution. Today there is less pressure, more time and more options for the Fine Gael/Fianna Fail Government to consider, including the much needed job creation which local tourism initiatives can provide and the backlash if FF & FG ignore those needs.”
Hanratty further highlighted the absence of a university campus in Drogheda as a long standing issue contributing to commuting pressures for students.
He noted that more than 750,000 people live within a 30 mile radius of Drogheda, compared to around 250,000 within a similar distance of Dundalk, making Drogheda a strong candidate for a university campus that could reduce commuting and ease pressure on Dublin.
Concluding, he said: “Everyone talks about the curse of commuting, which both I and my family have experienced like so many others. Commuting is the problem, but let’s place more focus on the solution, start tackling the local jobs “emergency,” and provide our students with a Drogheda University Campus.”
