Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Heneghan is full of energy.

I thank all the Deputies for raising various issues. Deputies McGrath and O'Sullivan asked about the Cork city task force. The docklands have been the main development focus in Cork city for some time. Under the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, some years ago €400 million was allocated to Cork for the docklands and the Grand Parade new library. Considerable progress has been made in the docklands, but not so much on the city library. I met representatives of Cork City Council recently to discuss these issues. Cork City Council is anxious about the city centre. Along with the Land Development Agency, LDA, and others, it is delivering on the docklands which is becoming an engine of real power and growth in the city of Cork. I believe it is coming forward with further proposals on the Grand Parade and on the library, which will be transformative. We always need to be conscious that the existing agencies will be crucial - Dublin City Council, Cork City Council and Cork County Council. Regarding Cork city, a lot of money will be channelled through the National Transport Authority, for example, the BusConnects proposal. The route for the light rail has been published. The N28 has been sanctioned. That will potentially come to about €490 million with all the knock-ons and so on. There will also be other infrastructure development.

The task force will come back with proposals for the city. It needs to look at how we reimagine cities of the future. We tend to look at it through the prism of the past and what cities used to be like, whereas we need to look at what they will be like or what we think they will be like in the future. We need a different mix with stronger residential focus in city centres in the future with less of the big anchor retail tenant type. There might be more niche quality hospitality and retail. I would a new task force for the city of Cork to try to reimagine the city centre, the core of the city, for the future as opposed to trying to do everything across the entirety of the city. We will come back with proposals on that.

We have been working on the Dublin city task force and the idea is to bring to the Government a memorandum that has substance. Everyone has raised the issue of funding.

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