Why a Borough council won’t fix Drogheda

An aerial view of Drogheda looking from the An Cairéal complex on Donore Road.

Despite clear evidence – presented by Drogheda City Status Group in October 2025 – that Drogheda has become a city, public representatives locally and nationally are ignoring the evidence to push for the restoration of the former Borough Council.

There are many reasons why DCSG thinks this is a retrograde step.

Drogheda’s urban population is split across two counties, Louth and Meath. A Borough Council answering to Louth County Council would be county-based, meaning that it would not serve the Drogheda people living in Meath, and the DCSG view is that it would just perpetuate the division of Drogheda. A new city administration is the best solution to unite Drogheda across county boundaries, and notably does not require any change in those county boundaries.

The population of the urban area of Drogheda now surpasses 50,000, which means that by EU definitions, Drogheda is now a city. It is no longer “the largest town in Ireland”, but is, in fact, “Ireland’s newest city”.

Political will

Some people think that the pathway to the creation of a city administration for Drogheda would be a long and arduous one. We disagree. DCSG’s contention is that where there is political will, a way will be found. Legislation will have to be enacted to create Borough Councils across Ireland. Why not enact legislation to create a Drogheda City Council?

Strong signals from the Government suggest that the interim solution to Drogheda’s long neglect is the restoration of Drogheda Borough Council, which was abolished by the then Fine Gael-Labour Government in 2014.

However, that move would offer Drogheda “crumbs from the table”, and bypasses or prolongs the need to tackle the much more urgently required city administration as Drogheda mushrooms.

Not enough

First and foremost, a restored Borough Council falls very far short of what Drogheda actually needs right now. Drogheda is a city, and should be governed, planned and funded just like a city.

A good case in point is Limerick. In May 2025, the Executive Mayor of Limerick City, John Moran, submitted a funding request for more than €5 billion in capital investment for Limerick city, to fund road, rail, housing, urban development and culture.

Another group campaigning for city status for Drogheda is Drogheda East Meath Alliance. They point out that: “An equivalent per-head case for Drogheda City of €2.5 billion could have been made. Should we include the regional growth area of Drogheda East Meath, the case would be closer to €4 billion.”

Many are pushing the narrative that the restoration of Drogheda Borough Council is a first step towards a city administration. But what if the creation of a new Borough Council just prolongs the tough decisions needed to give Drogheda true autonomy?

Scraps from the table

It has been suggested that Drogheda Borough Council could command an annual budget of around €60 million. That certainly seems like scraps from the table when compared with what a city administration could bring – many multiples of that figure.

DCSG’s view is that a restored Drogheda Borough Council only serves to perpetuate the division of Drogheda along county lines. Since the Borough Council would be answerable to Louth County Council, the estimated 20% of Drogheda people who live in County Meath would be “left out in the cold”. How is this even remotely acceptable?

DCSG wonders if local representatives have discussed with, or sought the views of, the estimated 10,000 urban Drogheda inhabitants living in Meath, in relation to the proposed establishment of a new Borough Council. Those Meath-based Drogheda residents will hardly be ecstatic at the prospect of being ignored by any new administration.

Retrograde step

Drogheda Borough Council was abolished in 2014. At that time, Drogheda’s urban population was 39,000. It is now AT LEAST 50,000, and is most likely around the 52,000 mark. DCSG’s firm view is that a Borough Council (which would have limited financial autonomy) would be a retrograde step, bringing us back to where Drogheda was up to 12 years ago, and that in essence a revived Borough Council would be incapable of dealing with the projected massive growth of Drogheda city.

Over 7,000 residential homes (houses and apartments mainly) are planned in three distinct neighbourhood districts along the route of the Port Access Northern Cross Route (PANCR). At least 1,000 of those have been built already, but the 6,000 still to come will bring an estimated new population of at least 15,000. That’s 15,000 people ON TOP OF the existing 50,000-52,000. 

The infamous PANCR project, which had been mooted for years (decades, in fact), was proposed to alleviate the centre of Drogheda from heavy port traffic which clogs up the city’s streets. At this moment in time, just one of FOUR phases of this critical piece of infrastructure has been built. A Drogheda city administration could seek Central Government funding for the remaining sections of that route and get it delivered. As of January 2026, there is no clear indication of when the route will finally be finished. Currently, that seems years away.

Drogheda-based

In early 2025, DCSG met with Louth County Council CEO David Conway, who had taken up the role in the summer of 2024. The meeting was constructive, but the CEO signalled to DCSG members that there were no plans to move senior executive staff based in LCC’s headquarters in Millennium Hall to the LCC offices in Fair Street in Drogheda.

A sum of €12 million was spent on the refurbishment of buildings in Fair Street to serve as Louth County Council’s headquarters in Drogheda. But if there were no plans to move senior executive staff to Drogheda, one could rightly question the value-for-money of that investment.

€12 million was spent on LCC's Fair Street offices. But there are no plans to
base any senior executive staff there.

A couple of months ago, in an interview with the Drogheda Leader newspaper, Louth County Council CEO David Conway signalled the council’s intent to let out some of that space. His exact words, as reported by the Leader, were: “We are exploring options to lease parts of the building to the public”.

What new staff would a reconstituted Borough Council bring to Fair Street? Will we even have a Deputy CEO? Given LCC’s reticence on the issue of relocating senior staff, DCSG can only surmise that many or most of the senior executive of LCC will remain based in Dundalk.

Outdated system

In Drogheda City Status Group’s recent letter to the Taskforce on Local Democracy, we stated clearly that a reinstated pre-2014 Borough Council for Drogheda was not an appropriate or adequate solution for Drogheda. Borough councils are county-based, and this outdated system has proved detrimental to a city that has grown well beyond county borders.

We foresee issues like:

·        Lack of joined-up thinking and planning for the entire urban area.

·        Redirection of Meath-based Drogheda residents to services in distant towns instead of Drogheda because of the county problem.

·        Rates and taxes collected by Meath County Council while the impacts are felt in Drogheda.

·        Roads where traffic calming can’t happen because each council only controls half.

·        Complaints passed back and forth because “it’s in the other county”.

·        Communities in estates split down the middle.

It is DCSG’s view that Drogheda has demonstrably suffered because it is divided along county lines. The old way of doing things no longer works. We need to stop trying to run a modern city of over 50,000 people through two remote county authorities, neither of which is designed – or incentivised – to manage Drogheda as a unified whole.

In fact, the population of the wider Drogheda area when outlying towns and villages are included is closer to 80,000.

By 2031, DCSG estimates the population of urban Drogheda will be around 60,000.

Unsustainable

Drogheda has become a dormitory city, with somewhere around 15,000 people leaving this area every day to work elsewhere. This is not just unsuitable but completely unsustainable. 

A rejuvenated Borough Council will be simply incapable of dealing with the challenges that Drogheda faces, and in any case it will only administer about four-fifths of the current city.

The re-establishment of a Borough Council avoids, in the opinion of DCSG, the much tougher decisions needed in central and local government to deal with Ireland’s sixth and newest city as it expands beyond all official predictions.

A Borough Council will prolong and accentuate Drogheda’s “vassal” status, leaving it incapable of dealing with the many challenges that an expanding city brings.