Took this photo on my way to work this morning. It's the Town Hall in Dundalk and behind those windows lies
the Council Chamber where I'm returning this evening to report on a planning meeting of Dundalk Town Council.
Councillors will be briefed on recent planning applications which , in current economic climate, aren't many.
A lot of development did take place in Dundalk during the Celtic Tiger, with new housing estates and shopping centres
springing up, but that has now stopped. The town's streets are lined with vacant shops, there are empty units in the shopping centres, and unsold houses in the estates.
I also suspect that the councillors will also express their opposition to plans to remove services from our local hospital to another hospital 25 miles away. I know that won't sound far to anyone reading this in America or Australia but Irish roads are different to the highways in other countries. In addition the hospital in Drogheda is bursting at the seams
and staff are under enormous pressure as it is. It seems that our hospital will lose its 120 acute beds and instead become a 32 bed 'step-down' facility with an A&E department dealing only with minor injuries. Dundalk, by the way, is Ireland's largest town and has been earmarked by the Government for future development.