Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions to which I would like responses. There are numerous developments going on in Cork city and county at the moment. My concern has been the infrastructure, especially in my constituency of Cork North-Central where there are issues. There is no northern ring road or road infrastructure. Articulated and heavy goods vehicles run through residential areas. If we are talking about sustainable planning, there is a proposed light rail system for Cork with no connection on the north side of the city. There is a deficit in the whole areas of planning sustainable communities, jobs and education. Planning needs to be balanced.

Churchfield Industrial Estate is an area in Cork North-Central where there are a number of recycling and waste collection services in the middle of the residential areas of Gurranabraher, Churchfield and Farranree. The estate is surrounded by sports grounds on the other side. How these facilities ever got planning permission in the first place is a mystery to me. A new recycling centre has set up without planning permission. It is getting a bin collection service. We are talking about planning and enforcement and people are just riding roughshod over the regulations.

I have serious concerns about regeneration and densities. I come from Knocknaheeny which is an area of Cork city that has been regenerated. There are also places such as The Glen and Mayfield in which there have been social issues. My worry is that if we keep the densities high, it will be counterproductive to the work we are doing in trying to regenerate these areas. The density issue is important. Mr. Cussen spoke earlier about high, medium and low-density areas of regeneration. I believe the areas about which I am talking should be low density so the social issues can be tackled. I have raised a few points on which I would welcome the thoughts and comments of Mr. Cussen.