DROGHEDA’S POPULATION HAS PASSED 50,000 – DECLARE IT A CITY NOW

The population of Drogheda has passed 50,000, the benchmark used by the European Union to define a city, Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG) has revealed this week. DCSG’s calculations show Drogheda’s booming population is currently just under 52,000 inhabitants – that’s 2,600 new people every year since 2022. The projected population of Drogheda in 2027 – just two years from now – is 55,589, DCSG’s figures show. These figures DO NOT include the outlying villages of Tullyallen, Donore, Duleek, Termonfeckin, Donacarney, Mornington, Bettystown or Laytown. 

“Drogheda is a city, and it’s high time it was recognised as such by the State,” DCSG Chairperson Anna McKenna said. “As our city grows at an enormous rate, we are seeing many new housing developments, but little else in terms of infrastructure, job creation, education and sports and leisure facilities, and sustainability,” she added. Anna revealed that Drogheda City Status Group is currently preparing a new short film showing the exponential residential growth of Drogheda. This will be a follow-up video to the one released by the group two years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxzdAFgv77U). 

“Our new video will demonstrate conclusively that Drogheda is not only ballooning, but is in fact the fastest-growing area in the State,” said Anna. “It will support, visually, what our figures are showing – that Drogheda has already become a city.” 

“The Government of Ireland must act now to declare Drogheda a city, and create a new city administration with its own city manager and budget,” she said. “We have had enough of political statements and promises. We’ve been told by senior Government leaders that Drogheda is a city. We’ve been promised a city manager. And nothing has happened, except the creation of vast new residential areas on the fringes of our growing city.” 

“In the meantime,” she said, “we have only seen new housing in the first of four phases of the Port Access Northern Cross Route (PANCR) finally under construction. DROGHEDA is a major centre on the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor (DBEC). There’s no indication of when the planned and much-needed bus and rail transport hub will commence. This will facilitate the creation of much-needed local employment for the thousands of new residents as well as those already making long commutes to work. In the same vein, Drogheda serves a catchment of 750,000 within a 30-minute travel zone and urgently needs a university campus to serve that catchment, which the transport hub would support. All of this is compatible with the Government’s claim that the NDP is very focused on addressing infrastructure deficits, which Drogheda clearly has suffered for decades. 

“Let’s see an end to Drogheda being discriminated against; address those key and urgent infrastructure needs and alongside that, let’s see progress in the creation of a Drogheda City Council and Manager without delay, supported by an expert group to plan Ireland’s next city to best advantage for all our citizens and businesses,” concluded Anna McKenna. 

DCSG urges local residents to support our campaign by contacting local FF/FG TDs and Senator to ask when they will deliver on their election promises to secure city status for Drogheda. 

Contact: Anna McKenna, Chairperson: 0863159920 

Anthony Murphy, PRO: 0868335055