I am from the town of Drogheda, a town that desperately needs city status if it is to access the kind of resources and supports this fast-growing area needs.

I would also like to highlight some of the main points from the Drogheda City Status Group in favour of this:

• We have many of the attributes of a city – large population; good infrastructure; transport hub; the “de-facto” Regional Hospital for the North East.
• City status will put us in the Premiership for overseas businesses to consider setting up here and we are unique in having major housing projects coming on stream for their employees.”
• Cities have a magnetic ‘pull’ on areas around them, and become hubs of creativity, enterprise, education.    This means reduction of the ‘brain drain’ of workers and students heading to Dublin/Dundalk every day. Another east coast city would take some of the strain off Dublin resources and infrastructure.
• Local administration and governance would enable us to realise Drogheda’s full potential to contribute on the bigger picture for the Greater Drogheda Region which would lead to greater social and economic prosperity for the population of the region.
• We have massive untapped tourism potential throughout the Boyne Valley and East Coast regions of South Louth and East Meath that need a focused approach and would deliver significant economic benefits if realised.

Yours sincerely,

Kelly Fincham