Sinn Féin TD for Louth and East Meath Imelda Munster has welcomed the news that her amendment securing priority for border counties in the allocation of Brexit supports has passed into law.

Speaking after the amendment to the Industrial Development (Amendment) Bill 2019 was passed this morning, Deputy Munster said that he is “happy that the counties on the border will be prioritised in terms of business supports ahead of Brexit.”

Deputy Munster said:

“My own home town of Drogheda is a prime example of why this is required.

“Drogheda has fantastic potential. It’s located on the Dublin-Belfast corridor, its population is highly skilled and it has a dynamic business community. In fact, the Financial Times has identified Drogheda as one of Europe’s Top 10 emerging micro-cities.

“It’s very frustrating that the government doesn’t see this, as Drogheda gets overlooked time and time again when it comes to business and development opportunities. We got nothing in the National Development Plan, we lost our town council and borough status under the last Labour and Fine Gael government.

“Investment opportunities seem to go elsewhere. There were media reports some months ago suggesting that foreign businesses who were seeking to locate in Drogheda were advised to go elsewhere.

“This bill that the government presented today did the bare minimum. It doesn’t address the serious concerns that the business community have expressed regarding the Brexit loan schemes, which are not targeting the right businesses, it doesn’t addressed workers rights concerns in terms of safeguarding jobs and the supports in the bill are limit.

“That being said, I am happy that I was able to improve the bill and ensure that Drogheda, as well as other towns along the border like Dundalk, will be first in line for the Brexit supports that are provided for in the bill and it won’t be so easy for the government to pass over us in this regard.”