Urban Development Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central Deputy Séamus McGrath raised the issue of the need for a strategic integration transport office in Cork. There are multi-billion euro projects on the go at the moment. The biggest one is the docklands. On 23 June, the Government approved a preliminary business case for the Cork city docklands enabling an infrastructure investment programme. That was reviewed by the major projects advisory group in KPMG, as well as the approving authority, which is the Department of housing. Construction cost estimates, when URDF funding was originally approved in 2021, was about €595 million. The programme now has a total estimated cost of €1 billion plus. It is a combination of tender price inflation and development of the design of some individual subprojects, that is, when you get down to designing these projects. That is the eastern gateway bridge project, in particular. An increased contingency allowance has also been included. We need strategic co-ordination. I would be slightly worried if we set up a new office to run it all. I do not think that is what Deputy McGrath is proposing. We could be there for another couple of years. To be fair, there has been a fair degree of co-ordination in Cork city in the docklands. The LDA and Cork City Council are working well together in terms of housing and residential developments in the city and in the docklands, in particular. I take Deputy McGrath's point about Cork Airport. There is a need to factor Cork Airport more into some of the proposals in terms of access and egress. There are a lot of queues near the Kinsale roundabout. Different voluntary groups had been formed. We have been asking. The NTA, in particular, should have a presence in Cork with TII and others. Working from the same office would make a lot of sense and a lot of complementarity would be developed in terms of the relationship between BusConnects and Cork Luas and so on. Deputy Tóibín raised issues in terms of Cork. I would point out that the Cork Luas project is not in planning. It has been in public consultation. There are a lot of issues around that. This is communicating with the public. Sports clubs have articulated real concerns about the proposed route. We have to get the route right first and we have to get it agreed. That public consultation has ended but issues have arisen arising from that consultation. It will be some time before it gets into planning but we are committed to it because it is an important project. In terms of the congestion of the city, big improvements have been made, in particular in the city centre. A lot of traffic bypasses it. Historically, because of the link road system, we were far ahead of other cities. We have to do a northern area distributor road, a northern ring road and so on. If BusConnects and Cork Luas happen, that will be radical and impactful in terms of the congestion question. Deputy Brabazon raised the Dublin city task force. He articulated what a lot of people are saying to me that some time ago, people looked forward to shop in the city centre. He said there was a menacing feel about the place. I accept we have to deal with antisocial behaviour on the streets. Open drug taking should not be accepted. It should not be something that is normalised. We need to clean up areas within the city centre. Security and a visible police presence is vital to that. The transformation of O'Connell Street is key to all of this. The purchase of the Hammerson site will unlock a lot, not just for the metro but the wider possibilities in terms of the redevelopment of O'Connell Street, which is a fantastic boulevard. As Deputy Tóibín said, Lonely Planet described it as such. It has never reached its potential as a major street. Because of the task force, we are on the cusp of doing something significant now, particularly in terms of the GPO. Deputy Mark Ward raised the issue of the GPO. The Government was always going to do a public consultation. I think that public consultation will be accessible to everyone. It is important because the GPO site is a huge site. It is not just the front building and so on. We need to concentrate on that and get it right. We are also working on Moore Street. A lot of work is under way by the OPW, particularly as it is designated under the National Monuments Act. --- 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/2026-07-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-15