Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

This is an interesting article from the Limerickpost,

Mayor calls for a united drive to restore Limerick as third city
By Marie Hobbins
LIMERICK city manager, Tom Mackey’s new application for an extension of the city boundary was approved by members of Limerick City Council on Monday and the application will now be forwarded to the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche.

The last boundary extension for Limerick city was granted in 1950 and an application for a further extension in 1974 was rejected. However, in 1991 the Commission of Local Government Reorganisation and Reform recommended that the boundary be extended and a further application was submitted.

City manager, Mr Mackey, has informed the councillors that in July 2002 the Minister’s private secretary wrote to the then mayor recommending that the data contained in the application be brought up to date and a fresh application submitted.

Last October City Council invited comment on the issue from the public and also from Limerick and Clare County Councils.

“We then considered the responses together with the views of the general public as expressed in correspondence and on the internet as well as through an MRBI survey conducted on our behalf and having considered all replies, we decided to amend the proposal,” the city manager states.

Referring to the new application being submitted to the Department, Mr Mackey said: “It is my considered opinion that an extension is essential in order that the city can discharge the role of regional development assigned to it by the National Spatial Strategy so that all citizens of Limerick can experience representative governance and that there can be a coherent vision for the future development of all of the city.

“It is also needed so that the city’s resources can be reinvested in the city to benefit all its citizens,” he said.

Stressing that a boundary extension is strongly supported by former president of the University of Limerick, Dr Ed Walsh, Cllr Michael Hourigan who made an extension a priority of his mayoralty last year, said that the current limits on the boundary are unsustainable in the long term.

“The city is being drained of resources by having to provide services for a huge population, most of whom do not pay rates to the City Council.

“A situation where you have three councils responsible for the administration of the Limerick urban area simply doesn’t make sense. I’m delighted that the new application and report is complete and can be sent to the Minister. It’s my hope that we will be able to move forward with the process as soon as possible,” he said.

Limerick’s present mayor, Cllr Diarmuid Scully points out that with a boundary extension Limerick would become 50 per cent larger than Galway but that without one it would fall to fifth place behind Waterford.

“Galway was granted an extension more than a decade ago, while Limerick’s last application wasn’t even answered by the government and as a result Galway, not Limerick is now, officially, the third city in the state,” he said.

Contending that the reason the Health Service Executive (HSE) decided to abolish the Midwest Health Region and put Limerick and Clare into a Western region, stretching from Letterkenny, County Donegal to Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, is a direct result of Galway’s increased status, Mayor Scully insists: “Unless the boundary extension is granted immediately the Mid West region will continue to lose out to the West and South as more and more facilities are located in Cork and Galway rather than in Limerick. I am calling on all public representatives in the region to put petty differences aside and unite to restore the capital of the Midwest to its rightful place as the Republic’s third city.”