Challenges for Cork - Village Magazine

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;

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;

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