Date : November 17th, 2015 A formal Public Notice was published on 17th November 2015, inviting submissions with regard to the review. Submissions are to be received by 15th January 2016. It can be downloaded here.
Date : June 19th, 2015 Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government, Mr. Alan Kelly TD, has announced the establishment of statutory committees to review local government boundaries in Athlone, Carlow, Drogheda and Waterford. “The main rationale for boundary alteration is to bring the administrative jurisdictions into line with the current settlement and development position and the reviews I have announced are clearly warranted given the significant overspill of population in each of these cases into another county”, the Minister said.
Outlining the benefits of boundary updates, the Minister added – “Bringing all of a town or metropolitan district within a single local authority area eliminates anomalies and distortions of divided administration, service provision, regulatory/enforcement responsibility and electoral representation, including problems such as competitive policies and practices between authorities in relation to planning, rating and charges, which can impact negatively on town centres. Consolidation of administrative responsibility can also strengthen the economic performance of the town or metropolitan district, both by eliminating the anomalies I have referred to and ensuring that there is a single authority working on its behalf.”
The groups will be established under section 28 of the Local Government Act 1991, which precludes elected representatives from participating and will act independently. Minister Kelly stated that he was delighted that people of such strong calibre and experience of local government were willing to come forward on a ‘pro-bono’ basis and assist in settling administrative boundaries for these areas. In accordance with sections 32 and 33 of the Local Government Act 1991, the committees will be required to carry out a review of the boundaries between the respective counties, and city and county in the case of Waterford, having regard to the environs of the urban areas in question located in another county.