'This is a really important project': Funding allocated for works at disused Cork school

TWO Cork projects, one of which is Coláiste Íosagáin, the long deserted iconic secondary school in the Múscraí Gaeltacht village of Baile Bhúirne, are among 30 regeneration projects across the country to share a fund of €164m announced this week by Rural and Community Development Minister Heather Humphreys.

The Údarás na Gaeltachta-owned former secondary school has been allocated €3.27m from the Rural Regeneration Fund, a sum which brings to €8.7m the total investment in the project which aims to turn the building into a Regional Development Centre.

It is estimated that the centre will generate up to 200 jobs in the Gaeltacht area in the facility which will include remote working facilities and offices.

Cork County Council has been allocated €1.85m for a town centre public realm project in Skibbereen. 

Costing a total of €2.3m, the project aims to re-animate the west Cork town’s streetscape and regenerate the town centre as a ‘vibrant location for people to live and work’.

Cork North West Fine Gael TD and former minister Michael Creed welcomed the announcement of the funding for the Coláiste Íosagáin project which he said would support economic development and facilitate the creation of jobs in the region.

“This is a really important project for the Muscraí region and for all of county Cork,” said Mr Creed. “The long-disused building will be transformed into a Regional Development Centre, providing facilities for enterprise development, training and research.

“The project has an estimated total cost of almost €9m, but now over a third of that money has been provided by the Department of Rural and Community Development under the Rural Regeneration Programme,” said Mr Creed.

“Tá áthas an domhain orm anois.

“I’m delighted that funding has now been allocated, and I wish Údarás na Gaeltachta every success with the work ahead.”