Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister on his vision and his optimism. I hope we can, collectively, be successful. I am glad he mentioned the need for Cork to be strong because we are becoming very Dublin-centric. We need to have a counterbalance through balanced regional development but I have some concerns. I am fully supportive and totally in favour of the policy switch to public transport. Deputy Sherlock spoke about the Leap card. It is a single journey from Cork to Mallow, whereas Cork to Midleton is a number of stops. That is part of the problem.

The Cabinet announced urban regeneration funding this week, which will be ongoing. My worry is that we will end up with no Cork city and that it will be left behind. On the island of the city now there are derelict buildings and idle sites. Everything is moving to the docklands, which we are all for, and up the other end there is the redevelopment of Bishop Lucey Park and the Grand Parade. However, the central piece of the island of Cork city, which is Patrick Street and the offshoots, is dying a death - no pun intended. One could land a jumbo jet on the pigeons on Patrick Street in Cork city today. As a Cork person I am genuinely worried. I am supportive of the Cork metropolitan strategy and I embrace it wholeheartedly. We had a great meeting with the NTA a few weeks ago. I will walk and drive with the Minister on buses and bikes every step of the way but I appeal to him, his officials and the Government not to let Cork city become full of tumbleweed. We must have a vibrant city. I appeal to the Minister to use the national development plan with the urban regeneration fund to drive a reimagined and revitalised Cork city.

To that end, I refer to the issue of the airport. We are all parochial about airports. Cork Airport is central to the new Cork as the connectivity point. Deputy Lowry used the word "liberation". The Minister's legacy, along with that of other Cabinet colleagues, will be the liberation and rebirth of Cork city. We can talk about bus corridors and public transport and have a wonderful image of what that looks like but if we have no place to go to offer a counterbalance to Dublin then we are in big trouble. The glossy magazines Deputy Matthews spoke about will not be worth the paper on which they are written. I will support the Minister 1000% but let us make sure that, in the case of Cork city, we do not have a city that is falling behind. It should be embraced as a new futuristic looking city. I thank the Minister for that.