Urban Development
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

A dedicated body, to be known as The Cork City Futures Group, will work to unlock the city’s full economic, cultural and academic potential, alongside further investment, innovation and infrastructure. I think people are familiar with the terms of reference. The group is comprised of members representing academia, business, An Garda Síochána, the arts and culture sector, tourism, transport and the community and voluntary sector. Mr. Brendan Tuohy, who is a former secretary general, has been appointed as the independent chair. They have met at least four times and are due to publish an interim report shortly.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
The programme for Government commits to applying the Dublin city task force model to other cities, towns and regions in need of revitalisation, starting with Cork city. At the beginning of April, the Government approved the establishment of the Cork city futures group to guide development of Cork city for the future.
The following terms of reference were approved: review the Cork City Centre Development and Operations Action Plan 2025-2030 and report back to Government on progress, barriers to progress, and to identify what needs to be done at local or national level to ensure action plan delivery; make recommendations to Government on how Cork city can fully realise its potential for sustained foreign direct investment, domestic business development and innovation, and serve as a regional hub aligning educational and intellectual property assets with local and international enterprise; to maximise Cork city’s potential as a university city given the strength of UCC and MTU; assess how the city can bolster the wider economic and social development of the hinterland, the region and nationally; consideration of how Cork city’s arts and culture offering could be strengthened as part of the national offering.
On 23 June, Government approved the preliminary business case, PBC, for the Cork city docklands enabling infrastructure investment programme. The PBC was reviewed by the major projects advisory group and KPMG, as well as the approving authority, which is the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, as required under the relevant external assurance process. When URDF funding for the project was originally approved in 2021, a construction cost estimate of €595 million was provided. The programme now has a total estimated cost of €1.063 billion. The price increase in the meantime has been generated by a combination of tender price inflation and the development of the design of some individual sub-projects, in particular the eastern gateway bridge project. An increased contingency allowance has also been included in the new estimate and another key driver of the increase.
The costs associated with the progression of the programme will be carefully monitored by the approving authority directly as well as through strengthened governance arrangements, such as the addition of additional key stakeholders to the steering group for the project. There will be regular reports to Government on developments in both Dublin city and Cork city initiatives.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15