Drogheda’s Councillors held a meeting last night to discuss the situation of the D Hotel and have issued a joint statement which is published in its entirety below:
Statement of the elected members of the Borough District of Drogheda
We the Elected Representatives of The Drogheda Borough District have already and will continue to welcome migrants to Drogheda.
The decision of the Minister for Children, Equality and Integration, Youth and Disability to effectively remove our main hotel facility (The D Hotel) from our town to the great detriment of our efforts to develop tourism in the County as a part of the Boyne Valley and Failte Ireland Heritage Destination Towns initiatives has been carried out without any consultation at all prior to announcing the decision yesterday.
We are requesting the Minister to meet with the Elected Members of the Borough District to review the impact of the decision for the removal of this key component of our local economy.
We are seeking clarification as to whether or not a risk assessment has been conducted to assess the impact that this decision will have on Drogheda including but not limited and also hospitality, retail sector and general business community of Drogheda.
We believe from informed research that the loss to our general town centre economy will be in the region of €5.4 million per year without considering the further ramifications of losses in the greater Drogheda area.
We wish to make it clear that, from our perspective, the total lack of communication from the Minister and his Department with any official or elected representative of Louth County Council is unacceptable and has caused a situation to arise where Drogheda will suffer financially and where there is a risk to those working in Drogheda to losing their jobs and a risk of businesses being forced to close.
A part of this discussion will need to be real and tangible State provided financial packages for the town to counter the damage that is going to be done by the Minister in making this decision.
The Minister and his officials have an obligation to the People of Drogheda and their elected representatives to consult, to inform and to address this situation of removing a large tourism asset.
We expect a meeting with the Minister as a matter of extreme urgency. We wish to emphasise that this statement is issued as a cross-party and non-party statement.
We conclude by stating that our issue is with the poor policy implementation of the Minister.
Cllr Kevin Callan, Deputy Mayor
Cllr Pio Smith
Cllr James Byrne
Cllr Joanna Byrne
Cllr Declan Power
Cllr Paddy Mc Quillan
Cllr Emma Cutlip
Cllr Tom Cunningham
Cllr Michelle Hall
