A new Portlaoise ‘town district’ council could be created in a shake-up of local authority structures being considered by the government.
The Sunday Times reported recently that junior minister John Paul Phelan is planning to bring legislation before the Dáil by the summer to grant town and borough district status to the country’s 28 largest towns.
This would give “control over funding for local roads and power to draft town development plans back to urban-based councillors,” according to the Sunday Times.
The article stated that ‘borough district’ councils would be created in Wexford, Kilkenny, Sligo, Drogheda, Clonmel, Dundalk, Navan and Bray.
In 2014, town councils were abolished in Portlaoise and Mountmellick in a national reorganisation of local government.
Population
It said a further 20 towns, with populations of between 14,500 and 30,000, would qualify for town district status.
Portlaoise would easily fit into this category with an ever rising population which stood at 22,050 in the 2016 Census.
It was reported that the district councils would received their own direct funding from central government, in the form of block grants.
It would then be up to the town district councillors to decide how best to use those funds locally.
SEE ALSO – Local Cllr says parts of Portlaoise ‘living in fear’
