As the Minister has pointed out, this Bill is for the purpose of confirming a local government provisional order relating to changes in the boundaries of County Louth and County Meath and the borough of Drogheda.
I find it difficult to understand why the Bill is introduced at this late stage of the session. We are now in the final week of the session and I had hoped the Bill would have come before the House earlier. If I am to judge by section 2 of the Schedule and also by what the Minister said at the end of his speech, it is hoped that the order will come into operation on 1st January, 1977. As the original provisional order which, to all intents and purposes, was exactly similar to the Bill was sent to the local authorities concerned on 19th October I had hoped that the Bill would be discussed in the House before now. A considerable amount of administrative changes must be made. Had it been possible to bring the Bill before the House last May or June I would have thought it would have facilitated the local authorities concerned, as well as giving the House an opportunity to debate it thoroughly.
Drogheda is a town of immense historic importance with charters dating back to 1229 so far as the borough is concerned on the County Louth side of the Boyne and to 1247 so far as the borough is concerned on the County Meath side of the Boyne. The present borough which straddles the Boyne is held under charters of James I and William III.
The importance of the town is emphasised by the fact that a parliament sat there under the Lord Lieutenant, Sir Edward Poynings, and it was that parliament that enacted Poynings Law which had such an immense influence on the course of Irish history in later years. Drogheda suffered the massacre which occurred during the Cromwellian period. St. Oliver Plunkett walked the streets of the town during his ministry as Archbishop of Armagh and he regarded Drogheda as the most important town in his archdiocese.
The history of Drogheda is a source of immense pride to its citizens but lest it be thought that the town is simply a relic of the past I would point out that it is a developing area with a fine harbour and with the greatest potential for industrial development outside the Dublin metropolitan area. Drogheda has shown its capacity for industrial development down through the years and apart from the industries located there in the past 20 years many other industries have roots there going back over a long number of years. The industrial policy of the late Seán Lemass gave a fillip to the industrial development of Drogheda.
In Drogheda there is a wide variety of heavy and light industries. The range covers cement, asbestos pipes, textiles, clothing, boots and shoes, fertilisers, foodstuffs, agricultural machinery, hypodermic syringes, plastics, soft drinks and so on. Recently with the closure of some industries and with reduced employment in others a serious unemployment problem has developed and this problem relates, in particular, to young people and school leavers. It is of vital importance to Drogheda that every consideration be given to any proposal that can help to alleviate the unemployment problem.
For some time Drogheda has recognised that it was reaching the limit of industrial, commercial and housing expansion within its present boundaries and indeed it has now passed that limit. In the past few years some of the new industries have been sited outside the borough boundary, as are some of the local authority and private housing estates. The corporation decided that if they were to continue developing both industrially and in relation to housing and services in an orderly manner and in a way that would ensure the provision of amenities for its citizens it was essential that the present boundary be altered. Some years ago they put in motion the machinery to achieve this objective by petitioning the Minister for Local Government to sanction an alteration to the boundary and they specified the area proposed to be incorporated within the new boundary. This area differs considerably from that proposed by the Minister in the Bill and I will deal with that aspect later.
The existing area within the borough boundary is approximately 1,486 acres. As I pointed out earlier, this is totally inadequate to meet the growing needs of Drogheda for private and local authority sites, for the volume of industrialisation of which Drogheda is capable and for the anticipated increase in population to about 45,000 people which, it is estimated, will be approximately the figure in 1986, an increase which will obviously put a very severe strain indeed on housing sites.
In reaching a decision as to the area necessary the corporation took a very proper attitude in that they concerned themselves not simply with the minimum needs of the town but also with the projected needs in the foreseeable future. They took the view that a rapidly expanding town like Drogheda should not be precluded from exercising control over development outside its present boundary, development which had largely arisen because of its own efforts, and the members of the corporation therefore proposed to add 4,189 acres to the town area made up of 3,041 acres from County Meath and 1,840 acres from County Louth, the bed of the River Boyne to be included in both cases. This meant acquiring one-half of 1 per cent of the total area of both Louth and Meath. Strangely enough, the total area proposed of approximately 5,675 acres is roughly the same area as was under the jurisdiction of the corporation when it was united by charter as a single corporation in 1412, the area then being 5,780 acres. The area proposed by the corporation is roughly the same area as the present area under the jurisdiction of Dundalk Urban District Council.
Whatever about the past, it was the considered opinion of the corporation and their experts at the time the Minister for Local Government was petitioned to permit the extension of the borough boundary that the area of 4,189 acres proposed to be added to the borough was the minimum area required to accommodate the increased population and to provide the employment outlets and the amenities necessary. The extension of the boundary as proposed was, therefore, mainly taking within the borough what could be regarded as the natural outgrowth of the town and the necessary land to allow for projected expansion. As I pointed out earlier, some of the area proposed to be taken within the boundary was already being serviced by the corporation, which received an income from the servicing related to only portion of it, namely, the water rate.
Let me repeat there is virtually no building land left within the present borough boundary. Apart from the basic requirements of land to provide for both private and local authority housing, it is vitally important to have land available for tourist development, for industrial and commercial activities, for transport, for cultural, social and sporting amenities, for churches, schools, recreation centres, clubs and so on to cater for an expanding population. The greatest emphasis must be placed on industrial development because Drogheda has been particularly hard hit in recent times and the number of jobs lost has been much greater than the number of new jobs which have been actually filled.
Various economic and other studies have been carried out in Drogheda which show the town as having a tremendous potential for further expansion. The people are anxious to ensure that development takes place in an orderly fashion and they, therefore, need control over land and buildings on the periphery of the town. In deciding the amount of land required the corporation took particular note of the projected population growth as outlined in the various reports and the needs which such a growth would create. They believed that the area in the original request was necessary and justificable if they were to proceed with long-term plans. It is, therefore, with quite considerable disappointment that I note, as a representative of Drogheda for the last 20 years and one with an intimate knowledge of its problems, that the Minister does not propose to include within its boundaries the area the corporation is on record as stating is the minimum required in the light of the future prospects of the town.
The Minister is quite content to permit the corporation to extend its boundaries almost to the limit of the corporation's application on the Louth side of the Boyne but he has cut down considerably on the amount of land the corporation desire to incorporate within its boundaries on the Meath side of the Boyne. The facts are that the part of Meath coming within the borough as a result of the Minister's order is little more than the amount already purchased and owned and serviced by the corporation, an area on which houses, both local authority and private, and industries were built, together with land owned by the corporation on which it is proposed to build a new technical school, the Rathmullen primary school and other amenities. The remaining area consists of a relatively small piece of land on the east side of the town, if one excludes the slobland and the river bed, and a further area of land on the west side adjacent to the industrial estate.
This is far from sufficient, in my view, if the town is to grow as expected and if proper and forwardlooking planning is to take place. This is a very important matter on which the future of the town depends to quite an extent and, in view of that, the approach of the Minister is a rather parochial one. I could understand, even if I did not accept, the Minister's stand when he was a Deputy representing County Meath and before he was appointed as Minister for Local Government and when his stance could be described by the term "not an inch". I cannot, however, understand his attitude now that he is Minister for Local Government and I believe he should alter his outlook. I can see no reason why he should refuse to accept the original proposal submitted by the corporation, a proposal which came to fruition after much thought and study of all the problems involved and something which the corporation believe necessary in the interests of the future economic expansion and the provision of houses and jobs in Drogheda. Such industrial development for example would be to the advantage of the people of Meath as well as the people of Drogheda and Louth.
When the corporation found the Minister was adamant in his refusal to alter his decision they suggested he should permit an exchange of land on the east side of the town in County Meath for land on the west side of the town, also in County Meath, and near the industrial estate, because the latter was suitable for development since it was already serviced by the corporation. This request was also turned down. As I said, the amount of land the corporation had originally proposed to include within its boundaries is about one-half of 1 per cent of County Meath and one-half of 1 per cent of County Louth and in that sense the corporation could not be said to be more concerned about one county rather than the other.
It is quite possible that had it been feasible the corporation would have taken a larger portion of County Louth within its boundaries, but anybody who knows Drogheda—and I have no doubt the Minister knows it well—is aware that further extension in the County Louth direction is hindered by physical obstacles, for example, the fact that there is quarrying on a large scale for raw materials for the cement factory, and also the fact that there are drainage difficulties. Undoubtedly quarrying for raw materials for the cement factory will continue to extend over a large area, and extensive quarries are hardly a feasible proposition for the middle of a built-up area.
On the other hand, the topography of the town, coupled with the engineering advice to the corporation, determined the direction of the proposed extension, and therefore it was decided to face in general to the south of the Boyne where the lands are easily served and where there is a good network of existing roads; and equally important is the fact that the main source of water supply is situated south of the town and mains are already laid in the recommended added area.
The interests of the people of Drogheda, in both Louth and east Meath, require that very serious consideration be given to the original and well-considered proposals of the Drogheda Corporation. The case originally put forward by the corporation, which petitioned the Minister for Local Government, is a sound one and one which would be acceptable to an impartial observer. I believe that if the Minister were to accept the original proposals of the corporation he would be making a worthwhile contribution to the growth of this ancient and vigorous borough of Drogheda and posterity would applaud him for it, even though it might create minor problems for him today.
If the Minister persists in his attitude in pushing the Bill through in its present form, then the day is not very far distant when somebody else will have to introduce a similar Bill to extend the boundary with the long and arduous planning, research and study which that entails; unless of course he adopts the proposals we had in our White Paper on Local Government Reorganisation which would allow the Minister for Local Government, on his own initiative, to make an order altering the boundary. We had also proposed in that White Paper to remove disincentives to boundary extensions, in particular the provisions under which the urban authority may be liable to pay compensation to a county council for the loss of rate income from the added area.
