A plea has gone out to city people to take a stand against the proposals by Denis Brosnan’s Local Government Committee to abolish the city as an independent local authority. It came from Mayor Maria Byrne, who has launched the ‘Save Our City’ campaign. She has asked the public to attend a rally this Friday, October 22, at 1pm at the Milk Market to drum up support.
She wants to send a strong message to Minister John Gormley, who will be in the vicinity at the time.
“Limerick city needs a boundary extension, taking in its suburbs so we can be a strong regional city of over 100,000 people,” said the Mayor.
“If the proposals in the Brosnan report go ahead
we will lose our city, our identity and over 1,000 years of history”.
She expressed belief that business rates in the city could be reduced if a boundary extension is granted, and that an amalgamation would mean a weaker city with a loss of investment.
Meanwhile, Cllr Diarmuid Scully says there is no valid reason in the report for the decision apart from a spurious claim that it will somehow magically save €20 million a year.
“This claim is not supported by any evidence. When one realises that not one single public servant will lose their job as a result of the proposed abolition, it becomes easy to see why the committee didn’t include any evidence in their report – there is none”.
