In recent weeks, Limerick Chamber has hosted events involving Ministers Hogan, Noonan, O’Sullivan, Deenihan and Varadkar and individually and collectively, they all re-inforced their commitment to Limerick’s revitalisation through integrating the city and county local authortities and the regeneration agencies into one authority, the appointment of Master Planners to develop a master plan for Limerick City, the appointment of a manager in charge of the new single authority by mid-year, a decision to separate Shannon Airport from the DAA and to appoint an interim board by Easter who will be tasked with coming up with a business plan which will be commercially viable. Limerick has the positive focus of cabinet at the moment. It is time for us all to embrace it and convert it into a sustainable new economic success story for Limerick and the region.
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Limerick Chamber President's Blog 
It’s interesting that you talk about uniting the city and county, but no mention of the elephant in the room! Limerick City is the urban core of a distinct economic region, which includes much of what is in the county of Clare. There are far more economic, social and cultural links between the city and the satellite towns surrounding it such as Parteen, Shannon, Killaloe, Ballina, Cratloe and Sixmilebridge than there are between the city and more distant towns and areas such as Abbeyfeale or Askeaton.
We need to move away from having local and regional administrations that don’t follow the realities of economic activity and population movement and dispersal. And until such time as we grasp that nettle, we will continue to underperform and struggle. We certainly do need a master plan, but it should not be for ‘Limerick’, because that simply does not make much sense given the reality of what our region is, and could indeed be counter-productive. The master plan should be for the economic region that our city is at the centre of.
Isn’t this obvious? Your article correctly identifies Shannon Airport as a major issue for the vitality of Limerick City. Shouldn’t the set-up of our local and regional admistration reflect this? Of course it should. As it stands, our region is divided and massively under-performing because of unsuitable administrative boundaries.
It’s time to deal with this. But how?
Our county identities are so entrenched in us that moving these boundaries is an incredibly senistive business. But something has to be done, because the whole region is being held back.
I would suggest that we don’t move any county boundaries, but we do change the administrative set up. That might mean creating a new administrative area that reflects the reality of the region. Call it the Thomond Regional Authority or Shannon Regional Authority, and start working on a master plan for it. Leave the county lines in place for cultural and identity reasons.