Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I support my colleague. We are talking about increasing timelines and giving extensions. I will provide an example. The Good Shepherd Convent in Cork was originally bought by UCC to be developed for, I think, about €4.5 million. It changed hands a couple of times. At the height of the Celtic tiger it was sold for €20 million. Afterwards, it was bought by a Drogheda-based company, Moneda. That company went for planning permission in December 2017, got planning permission and then flipped it. The site has still not had a blade of grass turned - nothing. It was complete speculation. This site in the heart of Cork city has for the last 20 years seen speculation after speculation, then the property crash and then back to speculation again. Now planning permission has finally been applied for and granted but there have been a number of fires on the site. Fire brigades have had to be called out and first responders put at risk because speculators only cared about maximising profits. The community around it in Blarney Street and Sunday's Well have had to put up with constant fires. If the Minister googles it, he will see. Every year, fire after fire. What was a protected building is now a shell; it had to be semi-demolished because it was a danger, all because speculators were allowed to get away with this.

This is not an isolated incident. We have seen this in other sites in Cork. The LDA has gone into the St. Kevin's site and is turning it into housing. For 20 years, that was left idle and left to be destroyed. We have a site off Shandon Street, Gurranabraher, just behind where I live, the old Connie Donovan's pub site. It was bought, planning went in for it and it was flipped. They put up the metal beams and the foundation and it has been like that for 15 years. Speculators cannot be allowed to get away with profiteering and damn the community. We need timelines to make sure this does not happen. Eighteen months, as Deputy Ó Broin said, is too long.

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