To the Commission:

In recognition of the emergence of Ireland’s sixth city resulting from the agglomeration of LBM with Drogheda and supported by the significant, ongoing population growth, this Submission calls for the establishment of a Boyne Constituency.

The Louth-Meath county boundary has been amended southwards some eleven times since the 1950’s in attempting to maintain Drogheda within County Louth. However the sustained and continuous growth of Ireland’s largest town has over-spilt all previous attempts. Outside of Dublin, Drogheda-LBM is unique in being the only case where two ‘large towns’ of 10k+ are fusing together as a single agglomeration.
As confirmed in the 2022 Census Preliminary data, Leinster now has 40k+ more population than RoI had in the nadur census of 1961. Drogheda-LBM’s emergence as another Leinster city is evidenced by the four-stage EU DG Regio Poelman-Dijkstra (2013) ‘test’ for city status, as per its population density per sq. km. The 100 metre distancing criterion for settlement separation is a nonsense rule and fails to recognise the bigger picture. This constituency review needs to capture the demographic momentum so that the Greater Drogheda Area is unified as the core of a ‘Boyneside’ constituency.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Brian Hughes