66 July 2021
The story of Cork City’s long and rich history is written
in the buildings and urban landscape that make Ire-
land’s second city, arguably, its most appealing.
History and Character
The city began as a monastic settlement, founded in the
sixth Century by Saint Finbarr. Vikings arrived in the
early tenth century and by the seventeenth century the
city has become a major export centre to the
Caribbean.
Hanging in the Rijks Museum is a painting by the sev
-
enteenth Century artist Gerrit Berckheyde ‘View of the
Golden Bend in Herengrachtm Amsterdam’. It shows
classical houses with external steps up to the
first floor on quaysides with open canals in
front. It could be of Cork. What’s notable is that
the view still exists almost fully intact in
Amsterdam but only remnants remain of such
scenes in Cork. A once beautiful trading city of
the Northern Renaissance period, planned on
classical principals within a watery context,
Cork is now suering an identity crisis. Cork
has more in common with the architecture of
Northern Europe and the English West Country
than with most of the rest of Ireland. It has suf-
fered much dilution of character since the post
war period. The loss is a national loss. Cork is now floun-
dering to re-establish an identity within the limitations
of a modern centralised political system.
“Every place must identify its strongest most distinc
-
tive features and develop them or run the risk of being
all things to all persons and nothing special to any.”
While the burning of Cork and slum clearances from the
Challenges for Cork
By Michael Smith
European Cork
has no vision
or strategy
and a problem
delivering
high-quality
development
1920s began the losses for Cork, road widening schemes
and ill-conceived property development in the historic
centre has caused untold recent damage, yet the City
still seems on a path to dilute everything and become
“the nothing special” that Robert Merton has warned us
about. That special character of historic cities is what
economists dream about for regeneration and prosper-
ity. Cork seems concerned with everything but.
Nearly 100 businesses and homes were destroyed or
badly damaged by fire and looting when the Black and
Tans burnt Cork in 1920.
Cork’s inner city slums were cleared by the municipal
authority from the 1920s onwards, and their denizens
were re-housed in housing estates on the periphery of
the city, principally on its north side.
Economy
Cork’s economy dipped in the late 20th century as the
old manufacturing industries in Cork declined. The Ford
car factory and Dunlop tyre factory closed in 1984. Ship-
building in Cork also came to an end in the 1980s, when
there was serious unemployment.
The Cork region contributes 19% to the national eco
-
nomic output in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Cork has been ranked second by the Financial Times
in the admittedly slightly obscure category of ‘small
cities in Europe for economic potential’.
Modern Developments
In the 1990s more modern industries came to Cork.
Marina Commercial Park was built on the site of the old
Dunlop and Ford plants, and Cork Airport Business Park
first opened in 1999. Little Island Business Park fol-
lowed shortly afterwards. Cork, like other cities in
Ireland benefited somewhat from the Celtic Tiger
ENVIRONMENT
Could be Cork
July 2021 67
economic boom, with growth in industries such
as information technology, pharmaceuticals,
brewing, distilling and food processing.
Larger oce buildings in the city include Half
Moon Street, Penrose Wharf and the Elysian in
the city centre – the tallest building in Ireland -
with Linn Dubh and The Atrium in Blackpool, and
City Gate Park in Mahon.
The Port of Cork is also a busy and important
port.
New Development
Over a million square feet of oces are under
construction or in the planning stages in Cork.
This includes the proposed €150 million develop
-
ment of accommodation, oces, retail and an
event centre at the old Beamish and Crawford
brewery site.
Developments underway in the city include a
€90 million oce scheme at “Navigation Square”
on Albert Quay recently purchased by French
fund, Corum; a 250,000 square foot oce devel-
opment on Penrose Quay; a €400 million oce,
hotel, retail and residential development at Hor
-
gan’s Quay and Cork Kent railway station of which
Apple is taking three floors. In 2017, following
other docklands development programmes,
including proposals for works at Custom House
Quay, Cork City Council announced plans to fur
-
ther develop Cork’s Docklands with over 200
hectares of land identified for possible
redevelopment.
In support of these plans for Cork Docklands,
the government is providing €350 million to sup
-
port regeneration with a further €46 million
being made available for a makeover of the Grand
Parade quarter. These allocations are part of a
package of supports that An Taoiseach, Micheál
Martin described as a “game changer” for Cork
city and county that would “transform the recrea-
tional, residential and commercial areas, and
prime the docklands for significant follow-up pri-
vate investment¨. The announcement also
includes funding for projects in Mallow and the
Passage West/Ringaskiddy/Carrigaline Harbour
Cluster.
However, there is some concern that a combi
-
nation of no clear strategy and a post-Covid
retreat from commercial development may cause
problems delivering at scale.
Population
According to the 2016 census, the population of
Cork City is almost 211,000 and that of the met
-
ropolitan population over 305,000 people.
The growth targets set out for Cork City up to
2031 aim to increase the existing population and
housing base extraordinarily - by over a third and
over a half, respectively. The housing targets
require an average annual delivery of over 2,000
new units to be sustained during the period to
2031 to meet the supposedly overarching but
toothless National Planning Framework
population target. The recently announced Our
Rural Future seems to undermine the long-stand-
ing sense of a strategy to put cities other than
Dublin first, by promoting a badly-considered
vision of “towns first”.
To support this predicted increase of 6,250
more people per annum on average 3,750 jobs
and 2,000 new residential units will need to be
provided every year for the next 20 years.
In the broader Cork Metropolitan Area expected
population growth of 105,000 people by 2031
will require commensurate growth in employ-
ment in the order of up to 65,000.
It is not clear how Cork will embrace this
increase. It needs apartments but must not com-
promise existing neighbourliness and quality or
its maritime orientation. Clearly the City should
draw up local guidelines prescribing attractive
mixed-use developments throughout the city,
centred on spacious family apartments.
Industry
Cork came late to large-scale industry, but driven
by its port, is now a centre for Irish industry. This
dates to Ford’s establishment in the city in 1917.
Henry Ford, was the descendant of Irish émigrés
and confessed in his autobiography that his
reason for choosing Ireland was largely personal
and that his ambition was to “start Ireland along
the road to industry”.
Located within Greater Cork are Pfizer (Pharma-
ceutical, famously including Viagra),
GlaxoSmithKline (Pharmaceutical), Johnson &
Johnson (Pharmaceutical), EMC (Data Storage),
Apple Inc. (European HQ, employing 6,000
directly), Avery Dennison (Financial Shared Ser-
vices), Siemens Group (Third party multi-lingual
tech support) and the Marriott Group (Customer
Service Contact Centre), Clearstream and Amazon
(Customer Services – On line Retail Activities).
There are two key third-level institutions in the
city, Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and Uni-
versity College Cork (UCC), which are the sixth
and third largest employers in the city respec-
tively - the latter employing approximately 2,800
people.
Planning
Despite a national spatial strategy introduced in
2002 which was intended to consolidate cities
outside of Dublin, the core populations of Cork
and Limerick actually fell during the following
decade, while almost half of the total urban
growth took place in commuterlands around
towns that were neither “gateways” nor “hubs”.
There is a danger that recent Green Party inter-
vention in the discourse will favour towns over
cities.
The challenge for Cork City Council is to
manage the future development of the city to pre-
serve its unique character and European feel,
particularly its neighbourhood-village sense , its
walkability, the accessibility of its artisan shops
and the famous English Market, its vibrant local
communities and its maritime orientation now
being promoted by Bord Fáilte, while providing
its people with the urban infrastructure that they
need. There is little sign that decision-makers
have a sense or vision of Cork, or a strategy for its
development. Overall its recent development
seems driven by the arbitrary discretions of the
City’s Chief Executive and, overridingly, by devel-
opers and their profits. Cork needs small-scale,
mixed-use developments to the highest quality,
including more apartments but its neighbourli
-
ness is fragile, and industrial-scale residential or
even commercial development can cut across its
native charms and characteristic finer mixed-use
grain.
A number of recent planning decisions show
that the Council has not struck the right balance
and gives rise to worries that, if they persist in
their current approach, they will end up doing
irreparable harm to the city and its residents.
Transportation
The lessons learnt from past housing failures
show that residential construction plans must be
fully integrated with a well-designed transport
plan. If this can be achieved, then there is consid-
erable capacity for redevelopment along the
existing transport corridors that would allow Mid-
leton and Carrigtwohill to grow considerably as
recognised in the Cork Metropolitan Area Trans
-
port Strategy (CMATS).
There is little sign that
decision-makers have
a sense or vision of
Cork, or a strategy for its
development’.
The English Mrket, Cork
68 July 2021
It is never theless imperative that this does not
divert energy from the fragile city centre.
CMATS takes an evidence-based approach to
this problem and builds on preceding transport
studies such as Cork City Centre Movement Strat-
egy; Cork Area Strategic Plan and the Cork
Metropolitan Cycle Network Plan. The overall aim
is to increase the modal share of public transport
to 26% by 2040. The Light Rail System (LRT) will
serve a catchment reaching 32% of the Cork Met-
ropolitan Areas population and 60% of job
locations.
The LRT will run from Ballincollig to Mahon, via
the city centre and will complement major
upgrades to the capacity and frequency of the cit-
ywide bus services and commuter rail services.
CMATS also aims to increase the number of walk
-
ing trips by 63% by 2040 and will provide
appropriate infrastructure and facilities to allow
cycling replace 56,000 car trips. Meanwhile a
central plank of the Government’s recovery plan
is €184million for metropolitan rail to run through
Cobh, Midleton and Mahon, and eventually Tivoli,
Blarney and Kilbarry – “transport-led planning”.
Cork needs to recognise a sense of place on its
trac- choked quays, potentially the focus of the
city. They should become a destination more than
a route.
Public realm
Cork’s public realm is evolving to better accom-
modate pedestrian and cycle routes, people with
reduced mobility and play/recreation. In particu-
lar, the city’s parks are crucial to the quality of life
and well-being of people in Cork City.
Recent and planned projects have occurred at:
• the new Tramore Valley Park;
• the new Marina Park in the South Docklands;
• Fitzgerald’s Park;
•
the ‘Shaky Bridge’ connecting the northside of
the city to Fitzgerald’s Park;
• Bishopstown playground;
•
Ballincollig Regional Park with associated
pedestrian and cycle path;
All of these parks have multiple activities ranging
from ‘Summer in the Park’ events, music, Park
runs, playgrounds, yoga etc.
Over the past 10 years there have been devel
-
opment of sports pitches and associated
changing facilities, and various upgrades of the
public realm.
Proposed greenways, the Lee2Sea and Euro
Velo, are opportunities to allow people to walk,
jog or cycle to and from work, school, shops and
for recreation.
There is a sense of vibrancy among Cork’s
senior planners that often isn’t matched by
management.
Nevertheless sterling eorts have been made,
post-Covid, to enhance Cork City Centre with dra-
matic outdoor dining and a number of ad hoc new
‘parklets’.
Modern Commercial Property
Developments
The growing demand for commercial property
spaces from the 1990s onwards, saw the con
-
struction of new commercial developments at
locations such as Marina Commercial Park; Cork
Airport Business Park and Little Island Business
Park. This extra commercial property capacity
helped to attract companies in modern industries
to Cork.
In addition to these business parks this period
saw individual large oce buildings spring up at
locations ranging from Half Moon Street; Penrose
Wharf; The Elysian in the city centre, Linn Dubh,
and The Atrium in Blackpool. There is a fear that
the city, one of the world’s most charming, has
not recognised this Unique Selling Point. Cork is
intimate, neighbourly, walkable with all
urban facilities available within reach to
those lucky enough to live at its heart. Its
history is also maritime though there’s little
sign of this in future plans. It is vulnerable
to industrial-scale residential and commer-
cial development. It also needs to orient on
its quays currently a human-hostile
dual-carriageway.
Current Development
Patterns
Most of the development patterns in Cork
city are worrying: too much dereliction, too
much inappropriate development at the wrong
scale, notable high-rise, dismantlement of city
walls, lack of attention to detail in particular
schemes and areas.
Derelic sies
The precedent is deeply concerning in the context
of the number of derelict sites that could be mis-
managed in the same way if lessons are not
learned. Up to 200 houses are derelict within 2km
of Cork city centre. In 2019 it was reported that
the City Council’s 100 derelict sites were worth
€30m.
For example, 42 Cornmarket St has been on the
Derelict Sites Register since 1993. It’s part of a
large surface car-park between the Bodega and
the Cornmarket. The Council has entirely
absolved itself of civic responsibility for its
restoration.
And as with many local authorities, enforce-
ment in Cork City is desultory.
The developers of Cork’s first city-sleeper hotel
project on MacCurtain Street illegally demolished
a fine nineteenth-century house last year, signal-
ling their intention to seek planning for the
erection of “replacement facades” on the western
and southern flanks of the development site.
They destroyed the former Windsor Inn, a 19th-
century four-storey building which had traded as
a bar and guesthouse.
Cork City Council said it was in “active discus
-
sions and correspondence” with the developer to
address the planning violation.
A spokesperson said that process is ongoing
and declined to comment further pending the
outcome – which will be no action.
Betraying a propensity to boorishness, during
the Covid lockdown, the City Council splashed
out €200,000 on a plastic footpath for McCurtain
Street. Irrespective of the aesthetic qualities of
the plastic footpath, it perfectly represents the
inadequacies of decision-making and ultimately
Cork City Council’s ability to waste money. The
plastic footpath is entirely unsuited to its loca-
tions and actually detracts for the enjoyment of
the area, especially as customers who had been
parking on the street to use local restaurants’
click-and-collect service have been left without
any space.
Inpproprie Plnned Developmens
Unfortunately Cork is focused too much on quan-
tity over quality. Two of the manifestations of this
are a fetishistic high-rise policy and a reckless
approach to its heritage including its river walls.
High-Rise
The Celtic Tiger period saw Cork again bagging
Overall, Cork’s recent development seems
driven by the arbitrary discretions of the
City’s Chief Executive and, overridingly, by
developers and their profits.
Dining out in Prince’s Street during Covid
Prklet, Dougls Street.
July 2021 69
the tallest building in Ireland with the Elysian
tower which took years to let after the crash,
Now, again in the 2020s, Cork City Council is in
a race to upstage Dublin in the high-rise stakes
with the continued help of An Bord Pleanála.
For example in 2019, An Bord Pleanála permit
-
ted 201 rental apartments built in a development
ranging in height from 8 to 24 storeys on the site
of Carey Tool Hire and the now demolished Sex
-
tant Bar (bottom) on Albert Quay to the east of
Cork City Hall.
An application by New-York-based Tower Hold-
ings for 140 metres and 34 storeys of Marriott
hotel and commercial development, with no resi-
dential component, on Custom House Quay.
Ireland’s tallest building was granted permission
by An Bord Pleanála in March. Located on the
eastern junction of the city’s river channels and
beside the Georgian Custom House, if built, it
would dominate the centre like the Tower of
Sauron, eclipsing the triple-spired St Finbarr’s
Cathedral and Shandon Church tower as the city’s
defining skyline image.
Ubiquitous Penneys announced that it is set to
double its floor-space at its Patrick Street
premises.
And a planning application was lodged in late
March by Carra Shore Hotel Limited for the former
McKenzies Circuit Courthouse site, latterly an
arts centre, on the bank of the River Lee, directly
opposite Cork Opera House on Camden Place and
Pine Street. The site had permission for 70,000
square foot of oces, but – contrary to the views
of some as to where the market is going - it may
now be redeveloped as a two-to-six-storey,
194-bedroom hotel.
There is anecdotal evidence that these devel
-
opments are half-cocked and that many of them
will not proceed. Tourism has been severely
aected by Covid-19 auguring badly for rampant
hotel permissions.
Co-living is has been hammered for lacking
social viability. High-rise apartments lie empty,
particularly in Dublin as they have been designed
as financial products and cost too much to be
aordable. This will be all the more the case in
Cork where rents are lower than in Dublin. Build
to rent may be threatened by restrictions on large-
scale purchase by cuckoo funds.
Evidencing this recently has been the aban-
donment of the 25-storey Albert Quay/Sextant
Bar (sadly demol
-
ished) apartment in
favour of an oce
scheme which would
be double the height
of any previous
oces schemes in
Cork city centre, and
just a floor under the
height of the 2008-
built Elysian
apartment tower.
Cork Chamber has
long noted the finan-
cial precariousness
of apartment devel
-
opment in Cork City. According to the Business
Post in May there where only four commercial
lettings (for only 3,070 sq m)in the city in the first
three months of 2021. Vacancy rates had risen to
12.7% by March2021.
It has also been reported that Amazon, which
had been looking for new oces is no longer in
the market.
Nevertheless the City CEO seems strikingly
bullish about oces. Ann Doherty told the Irish
Times in April: “speaking to oce block develop
-
ers with product to oer in Cork, they remain
confident that there will be demand for the
100,000 square metres or so of oce accommo-
dation which has or is just about to come on
stream, primarily in the Cork Docklands”. The
likes of the Financial Times have not been so opti-
mistic in recent assessments of global trends.
The contention that the Council is arriving at
flawed planning decisions is confirmed by the
manner in which it commissioned a report from
KPMG -The KPMG Land Use Study.
A tender for a contract to make proposals for
the revitalisation of the city centre was advertised
over the 2020/2021 Christmas break but received
only four responses largely because the terms of
reference were regressively over focused on eco
-
nomics and construction. In the end the City
Council engaged KPMG, best known as an
accountancy firm, to study land use and eco
-
nomic patterns in the historic city so as to “guide
the ongoing eorts of building the City Centre’s
attractiveness as a place to live, work and visit”.
In June 2020 Cork City Council issued a sepa
-
rate tender notice for management
consultants to undertake a report that
would provide “new thinking” and a
“robust evidence base” for the city’s devel-
opment plan for the period 2022 -2028 “in
order to ensure the council has a coherent
policy in relation to urban density, building
height and tall buildings”.
Again it is clear that there is too much
emphasis in the terms of reference on eco-
nomics and construction, and little focus
on sustainability or social or environmental
criteria. There is also evidence of a lack of
attention to urban grain.
Grnd Prde
Perhaps most egregious is the 1.3 acre site on
Grand Parade where a €300m scheme of oces,
apartments and a city library, planned since
2002, is substantially derelict.
Bishop Lucey Prk
Bishop Lucey Park was developed by carving an
open space from the derelict parts of Cork’s medi-
eval core in response to the perception of a lack
of public spaces in the city center. While the addi-
tional green space in the city centre is welcome,
it has come at the cost of ruining the Grand
Parade’s definition as an urban space and dis-
rupted the continuity of South Main Street (The
medieval high street of Cork).
It is rare for cities to clear medieval city blocks
and this was an opportunity to repair the scarred
urban landscape of Grand Parade, the 17th Cen
-
tury Tucky Street, and the medieval high street.
The project could have followed well-estab-
lished international norms by erecting buildings
in the gaps of a broken urban landscape which
created safe, overlooked and complete urban
space.
Instead, the unsightly blank gables exposed
by demolition gives the park the feel of a leftover
space from the type of slum clearances that
occurred in many cities in the 1980s.
The project resulted from an architectural com-
petition. Generally these are judged by a jury. As
so often, too much was left to the regressive dis
-
cretion of City Management.
Perhaps the real opportunity for a park is on
Sullivan’s Quay on the former Tax Oce site.
River Wlls
The Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme is the project
being carried out by the government’s Oce of
Public Works to protect Cork from river flooding,
as happened in 2009, and tidal flooding, as hap
-
pened in 2014 and 2020. The OPW plans to build
flood defences along the River Lee downstream
of Inniscarra dam and through Cork city into Cork
Harbour near Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
The proposal is for flood walls with over 15 kms
of flood defence walls, walls with gaps, demount-
able structures, embankments, deep excavations
and pump chambers. All this would represent a
Photomontage image of planned 34-storey hotel and commercial
complex at the east river channel junction between the Georgian
Custom House and warehouses. The Horgan Quay tower is to the left
and the Prism to the right. The spires of St Finbarr’s are in background.
Sextnt: no longer Extnt
70 July 2021
stark failure to safeguard the city’s rare and character-
istic stone wall with their associated heritage
character.
The scheme has been strongly opposed by the Save
Cork City campaign group, which says the scheme is
over-reliant on walls, will reduce access to the river and
will not protect the city centre against flooding. It calls
the scheme “the largest planned destruction of heritage
in the history of the State”.
Save Cork City is advancing what it claims are eco-
nomical solutions to protect Cork including a Tidal
Barrier which would keep Cork open for business.
It is promoting improved ESB dams on the Lee with a
tidal barrier (similar to the Lagan Weir and tidal barrier
in Belfast), at any of four appropriate locations.
Save Cork City say this will:
1. Save half the cost of the OPW scheme;
2.
Protect a much greater area of the city from fluvial,
tidal and groundwater flooding;
3. Avoid the conversion of the Central Island around the
main shopping district into a building-site, for the
second time in a generation;
4. Conserve the character of the 800-year-old port city
with its open quays;
5.
Enhance the amenity and environmental quality of the
urban waters of the Lee by actively controlling water
level within the City, for example, to facilitate passage
under bridges and landing from pleasure boats, to
cover anoxic mudflats at low Spring tides as in Belfast,
or to exclude sea-water and tide entirely, as in Singa-
pore, where a constant level is maintained for all kinds
of recreational activities such as boating, windsurf-
ing, kayaking and dragon boating, on a coastal
freshwater-supply and flood-control reservoir.
Save Cork City says that the OPW’s flood protection
scheme make no financial sense. The OPW proposes to
spend €120,000 per property protected. The scheme
began with a budget of only €24,000 per property. The
proposal for a tidal barrier which could protect 16,000
additional homes in the dockland area could protect the
city for between €14,0000 and €5,500 per property, it
claims. It says that the OPW flood walls have already
“stagnated” the city and would lead to widespread
losses in local property values, an inability to attract
investment and lasting harm to the wellbeing of citizens.
Save Cork City has asked why the first phase, the Mor-
rison’s Island proposal, should not be a heritage-repair
proposal instead of Tesco-style stainless steel, concrete
and clading.
It wonders, if the Morrison’s Island scheme can
protect so much of the vulnerable centre of the city, how
could building the rest of the scheme make sense and
as such why hasn’t the Morrison’s Island scheme been
reduced in height accordingly?
Save Cork City queries why, given that the wall pro
-
posed at Morrison’s Island is about 1m high when
viewed from Georges Quay, the OPW’s drainage depart-
ment misleadingly say it’s only 600m high.
And it is concerned that, given the Lagan Weir Tidal
Barrier cost €14m in the 1990s, and a barrier at Tivoli,
Blackrock or Little Island are all feasible, and said to cost
less than the OPW flood scheme (€50m to €200m) the
OPW and City Council seem to have misled people by
claiming a tidal barrier would cost over €1bn.
Judicial Review
Save Cork City has mounted a number of legal chal-
lenges to the Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme. The Council
last year had to submit a fresh planning application as
a result of one of these challenges in 2019.
Save Cork City currently has a judicial review pending
in the High Court against a Bord Pleanála decision to
grant permission for a part of the OPW flood defence
project. The case centres on alleged project splitting to
avoid environmental impact and financial assessment.
EU Complaint
Save Cork City has made an ocial complaint to the EU
Commission based on habitat destruction, project split-
ting, inadequate public consultation breaching the
Aarhus Convention, and damage to the economy. The
September 2020 complaint was lodged following a cam-
paign by the local authority and the OPW asking
for the withdrawal of the Judicial Review. The Envi-
ronmental Enforcement Agency of the European
Commission now says that the group’s concerns
“are evidence of a wider failure by Ireland and the
OPW”.
Specifically, they have said that Ireland has
failed to correctly transpose and comply with the
provisions of the Water Framework Directive
(Directive 2000/60/EC).
The Commission’s Environmental Enforcement
Directorate has said it is awaiting Ireland’s formal
response to this Reasoned Opinion.
Cork is a city on the brink.
County Cork Flood Relief Projects Outline Summary
Developer Consultant Competitive Tender 2017 Cost 2019 Cost 2021 Cost Current Fees* Properties
Protected
Cork City LLFRS OPW Arup Y (start €40m) €140m €200m €250m €12.8m 2100 (if successful)
Morrisons Island OPW/Cork City Arup No? €6m €10m €14m €.64m Disputed (10?)
Midleton OPW Arup - 20 €34m €50m €2.1m 580
Glanmire OPW Arup - €11.3m - €14m - 103
Douglas
(Togher) OPW Arup Y €6.8m €8.6 €22.6m €1.3m 221
Blackpool OPW Arup No? €12m €20.5m (25m?) - - 293
Albert Quay Cork City Arup Y? - - - - none
Bandon* OPW Byrne Looby Y (start€11m) €16m €31m ongoing - 260
Skibbereen* OPW RPS Y (start€12m) €18m €37m - - 312
Fermoy* OPW TJ O'Connor/DHV Y €38m - - 264
Little Island Tidal Barrier Public Private Partnership PPP, Design Build Finance Operate and Maintain DBFOM €200m 20,000 potential
Blackrock Tidal Barrier €80m
16,000 potential
The initial budget for the OPW Cork LLFRS project started at €20 million and has now reached up to and over €200 million. The similar (but smaller) OPW Walls Scheme
for the River Nore began at €13 million and rose to a real contract figure of €47 million (3.6 times), as noted in Chapter 4 of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services, 2013. An increase to 360% is an alarming prospect for a Walls Scheme that could severely reduce the economic potential
of Cork City. Although the OPW may have since then improved their budget management, it is noted that they have not yet embarked on a wall project of such
complexity or scale, involving the challenging ground conditions and water regimes that are present in Cork and therefore it would be prudent to expect that significant
cost overruns are not only possible, but probable. Groundwater issues still aren’t dealt with and the circumstances suggest massive overruns in cost. The estimates are
now at almost €100,000 per property for the LLFRS and growing at a final highly conservative cost of €210m. Midleton is predicted at €58,000 per property.
Skibbereen carried out at €120,000 per property far above estimates. Almost no properties flood on Morrison’s Island in Cork and as a stand-alone project it has
limited capacity to work. As stated by Prof R Devoy and Prof P O’Kane. See also Ground & Groundwater Report by A Beese. Estimates show cost at Morrison’s Island
could be up to €800,000 per property as many property owners demonstrate groundwater rising inside buildings in tidal events and do not recognise the claims of the
scheme. *schemes in Bandon, Skibbereen and Fermoy have failed on different occasions. Figures are based on available information.
Recent planning
decisions
particularly on
high-rise and the
city walls show
that the Council
has not struck the
right balance and
there are worries it
will do irreparable
harm to the city
and its residents.
Proud quy wlls

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