Urban Development
Dail Éireann — 2025-09-17
============================================================

Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

I thank the Deputy for his observations and his support for the desire to work together on the rejuvenation of Cork city to make it a better place to live, work and experience its wonderful culture. The people of Cork have an immense and justifiable pride in their beautiful city but even the proudest Corkonian will admit there are a number of areas where we could do better to enhance the city's vibrancy and vitality, and the Deputy has listed some of them. There is no doubt that the growing population in Cork presents both challenges and opportunities. We need to tackle vacancy and dereliction, and we need to make sure that Cork's streets are vibrant, as well as safe and clean. The ingenuity of Cork people is recognised throughout this country, and no one should doubt their ability to lead the way in making the city the best it can be.
The approach of the Dublin city task force and the roadmap for delivery provides a very good example of how State agencies and key stakeholders can work together to plot a course for a city's rejuvenation. As the Deputy mentioned, inclusiveness is a huge part of this. He spoke about how he was part of the initiative that brought together the city council, chambers of commerce, businesses and community organisations. That combination of the right people around the table bred the success of Ringaskiddy.
We want to build on this in line with the programme for Government commitment but we also want to take a fresh approach for Cork city. As I said in the opening statement, it is important that we get the terms of reference and the focus right. I understand the Deputy’s frustration around timelines. If it happened yesterday, it would not be quick enough for the Deputy, and I understand that because it is all about delivery and progress. I can assure the House that there will be further intensive discussions on this in the coming weeks and that the next steps for Cork city will be announced in the very near future. I will ask the Taoiseach to keep Deputy Burke fully up to date on that.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:00:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-09-17