Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I welcome the Bill. As a former Lord Mayor of Cork city, I welcome the extension of the city boundary. The most recent extension was in the 1960s, more than 50 years ago, so this is welcome. We have undertaken planning well in Cork. More than 30 years ago, we had the Cork Land Use and Transportation Study Plan, LUTS, which was about developing urban centres outside the city, that is, Carrigaline, Ballincollig, Blarney and Glanmire. It worked well but we have now moved on from there. The population of Cork over the past 30 years has increased from 410,000 to 546,000, and it is expected that it will increase to in excess of 700,000 shortly. Proper planning and proper infrastructure must, therefore, be put in place. This Bill provides for the extension of the city boundary in order that the population will increase from 125,000 to more than 205,000. It is important that there be careful management of future development and growth in the new area. A single authority will be involved in this greater area bringing in Blarney, Glanmire, Ballincollig and a large section of the Rochestown-Douglas area, which is at partly in the city and partly in the county. This is important.

It is also important that we push ahead with the proper development of infrastructure. One of the most important issues in the development of Cork is the provision of the north ring road. We have the South Ring Road, which was a major infrastructural development planned in the early 1970s. The city and county councillors at the time had the foresight to put the tunnel under the river in building the South Ring Road. One can now travel from west of Cork city all the way to the outskirts of Dublin in slightly over two hours without any difficulty, and this is because of good planning. The Cork-Limerick route, which is a major infrastructural development in the south and south-west region, also needs to be understand. It needs to be ensured that the Ringaskiddy road is developed to provide access to the port.

Another issue I feel strongly about is the proper development of hospital facilities. I referred to the increase in population of 136,000 in 30 years, but there has not been major growth in the number of medical facilities available in the city and the region. This is also important.

As for the development of the city more generally, there is now a significant opportunity to ensure the same mistakes made in Dublin are not made in Cork. Extending the city boundary will mean one local authority in charge of this central unit, that is, the city itself. The other major development in Cork is the moving of the Port of Cork from Tivoli to Ringaskiddy. I served on the board of the Port of Cork from 1997 to 2007 and, even at that stage, we were planning long term for this development. It is a major development, and contracts and everything else are in train for the development of port facilities in Ringaskiddy. I will give one example that demonstrates the current scale of development in Cork. Taking in the area immediately adjacent to the railway station, 1 Albert Quay has been completed over the past 12 months. There are now 1,700 people working in that office space. O'Callaghans is carrying out an office development in which 3,500 people will be accommodated. There are two other projects which amount to another 4,000 places. More than 9,000 office spaces have been provided in less than five years.

The greatest challenge relates to residential accommodation. I was recently approached by one developer who said he would love to convert one of these office blocks to residential accommodation to accommodate the people moving into the area. The train station is within ten minutes' walk of this new office development, but people, especially younger people, do not want to move to towns outside the city. People could live in Mallow, Cobh or Midleton and go to work by train. They do not want to do that, however; they want to live in the city. The problem is that there is no residential accommodation for these 9,000 people. This needs to be examined. These people have talked to me, and I have written to all Ministers on this issue, including the Ministers for Finance and Housing, Planning and Local Government, telling them that the cost of building residential accommodation, especially apartments, in urban centres is greater than the sale price they would yield. This needs to be dealt with, especially now that there is all this office accommodation and all the jobs. More than 150 foreign direct investment companies are based in the Cork area, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson, Apple and EMC. Apple employs more than 5,000 people, EMC more than 4,000, and they will continue to expand. Every week over the past three months I have attended the official opening of a new facility in Cork. The challenge now is residential accommodation, and it needs to be dealt with.We have a great opportunity in Cork because there are 500 acres of undeveloped land in the area between City Hall and Páirc Uí Chaoimh. That needs to be developed but a joint approach needs to be taken. We are building office accommodation but we are not building residential accommodation. We need to do something to incentivise the building of suitable residential accommodation in that area. It is important. We have a great approach in Cork in that everyone, including Cork City Council, Cork County Council, the Port of Cork, Cork Institute of Technology, University College Cork and all the hospital groups, works together. It is important that continues but, in order to really develop without making the same mistakes as Dublin, we need to build appropriate residential accommodation to accommodate this growth. Cork's population will grow to more than 700,000 people in a short period of time. I look forward to that, but we must deliver services, residential accommodation and hospital and medical services in the same way as we deliver jobs. I thank the Minister of State for bringing this forward. I look forward to working with him on the implementation of this Bill.