Longford Council Cathaoirleach Colm Murray meets An Taoiseach in Government Buildings

Longford County Council chairperson Cllr Colm Murray met with An Taoiseach and Fine Gael Party Leader, Leo Varadkar, in Government Buildings on Tuesday evening.

The Taoiseach, along with all of his senior Ministers, met with the 13 Fine Gael Councillors who have recently been elected as the first citizen of their county.

Councillor Murray, who was elected as Cathaoirleach in June, outlined his main priorities for his term.

“I want to secure infrastructural investment for Longford, such as continued funding for the N4 upgrade, upgrades to the N55, increased services on our rail line and securing further investment in and giving direction to regeneration projects throughout our county, particularly our county town.

“I will focus on building ties with the industrial and enterprise sector to encourage more investment in Longford, to ensure a supply of high quality jobs and to make Longford an attractive place to live and work from.

“Key among this will be the work to secure an advanced IDA facility in the county. Companies operating in Longford are already showing that this is a place they can thrive in – for example Abbott Diagnostics, Avery Dennison (which was a Longford start-up).

“I want to see continued investment in community facilities throughout Co Longford. This has been an area of great success in our county over the past eight to 10 years. And with a continued partnership approach between the Local Authority, us the public representatives and community groups, we can continue to secure investment from Government.

“I want to make special mention of Minister Heather Humphreys and her predecessor Minister Michael Ring for the support they have shown to Longford projects during their tenures.

“I want to see accelerated investment in housing in county Longford, not just in social housing, but in affordable housing schemes too. Part of the issue with our current housing shortage is the complexity of the regulatory side of building as well as the gap between the price of construction and the market value of housing.

“Just Transition funding can make a huge difference to the communities so badly affected by the closure of Bord na Mona’s peat extraction arm and the closure of some of our power stations.

“While Longford fits the profile for being a big beneficiary of this fund, significant work remains to be done to ensure our communities and local authority are primely placed to access this money. I will be meeting with the executive of the Regional Authority and colleagues from Offaly County Council soon to formulate a plan on how best we as a county can do this.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “I had a good two-hour meeting with Councillor Murray in Government Buildings on Tuesday evening to discuss the issues that matter to the people of Longford. The meeting gave Councillor Murray the opportunity to raise these issues directly with me. I committed to Councillor Murray to work on these issues.

“The need for more funding this year for local and regional road maintenance, a top up allocation for the Local Improvement Scheme and, in the coming years, funding to advance new road projects that are delayed, the urgent need to service much more land for housing were raised at the meeting. On energy security and climate, they impressed on me the need to increase aid to farmers, schools, community buildings and businesses to install solar panels and become energy efficient.’

“I look forward to working with Councillor Murray and visiting Longford during his term as Cathaoirleach.”

Fine Gael is making a real impact in communities through the hard work of our local representatives. With 13 Mayors/Cathaoirligh across the country, Fine Gael is representing stronger, safer communities in every part of the country.

ENDS