'No time to waste': A Cork Taoiseach will need to tackle roads, public transport and events centre, says chamber CEO

A CORK Taoiseach will be “significant” for the business community, the CEO of Cork Chamber has said, sharing what’s on his Christmas wish list for Cork and why there is “no time to waste” on the formation of government.

Reflecting on the last 12 months, Conor Healy told The Echo that 2024 has seen several exciting developments in both road infrastructure and rail development, as well as advancements in environmental measures from Cork Chamber itself, but that there are significant challenges which will continue into next year.

“For many years, everyone was talking about the need for the Dunkettle Interchange to open fully, and that happened in 2024. That was a big step forward, a key infrastructure project that came in on time and on budget and adds significantly to transport infrastructure across the region,” he said.

“We’ve also seen improvements across certain aspects of our public transport —improved suburban rail services and further commitments to see public transport in Cork improve over the next few years.”

Focused

He continued: “For ourselves at [the] Chamber, we’re very focused on sustainability and supporting our members on a carbon reduction journey, and we undertook a significant retrofit of our office building, Fitzgerald House, to improve carbon efficiency and create a more sustainable work environment for our own team.”

He hopes to see these positives continue and multiply in the new year, saying he is hopeful that a Cork Taoiseach will see the city prioritised.

“What’s really important now, turning towards the new year is that we get a new government hopefully put in place in the first few weeks of January.

“There is the expectation of a Cork Taoiseach in Micheál Martin, and that will be significant for Cork. We need to see that government up and running quickly, as both across the country and here in Cork, there are key projects which need to be delivered — there’s no time to waste.”

Mr Healy is also looking forward to seeing continued development in the renewable energy sector, saying: “Cork has a big opportunity to be at the heart of all that” with the Port of Cork currently embarking on a significant project to support the offshore wind sector.

“From a technology point of view, the pace of change with Artificial Intelligence is important, it’s very interesting to observe its development so far and everyone is looking to understand what will come next.

“So much has happened in 2024, and we expect that in 2025, AI will move on significantly to another level, this will have a huge impact on businesses in terms of new challenges but also new opportunities.”

Pressure point

Mr Healy predicts that the cost of doing business will continue to be a pressure point for small to medium enterprises, but that a new government will have the opportunity to change this.

He told The Echo: “The SME sector has had a difficult 2024, particularly in areas like hospitality and retail.

“I think that will continue into 2025. It needs to be a major focus of the next government to identify measures to support the SME sector, because a lot of the challenges they are facing are as a direct result of decisions taken and policies implemented by the government.

“Many of those policies are worthy policies, but with them all being implemented in a very short timeframe, they brought significant challenges to businesses in Cork and across Ireland — those challenges are going to continue, but they represent an opportunity for the incoming government.”

Mr Healy said: “In retail in particular, and to a lesser extent hospitality, the broader Christmas period is a big part of the year — hopefully Cork businesses will have had a good period by January.

“It’s important to note, while we’ve had business closures, including a number of high profile closures at the start of 2024, we’ve also seen new businesses opening throughout 2024 and there are more coming in 2025.

“We continue to see a strong entrepreneurial spirit in Cork, while challenges do exist, it’s great to see businesses overcome these challenges and move on with new ideas and concepts, we at Cork Chamber are very focused on helping every Cork business do exactly this.”

Confidence

Commenting on the increase in international businesses in Cork, with new additions to the city centre including Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works and Mango, he said that this further shows that confidence in Cork as a business destination is still there.

“Whether it’s on our high streets or in our key sectors such as science and technology, Cork has had a very positive 2024 from an inward investment perspective, and that is set to continue into 2025.”

This brings its own challenges and further undermines the need for infrastructure to back it up, though, Mr Healy said, explaining: “We need to ensure we put the appropriate resources in place, the right infrastructure, better public transport.

“The number one issue continues to be housing — accommodation availability, particularly for those moving to Cork for the first time and looking for rental accommodation.

“However, the Cork Chamber office is overlooking the docklands, and I can see tower cranes there constructing apartments — that wasn’t happening two to three months ago, so it’s about recognising all that has been done but still acknowledging that more is needed.”

Other challenges in Cork include worries regarding the safety of the streets, particularly in the city centre.

“There has been a lot of concern over the last few months in particular over this perception of Cork city not being as safe as it had been in the past,” he said.

“While I would say Cork is still a very safe city overall, we do need to see increased Garda resources, and particularly a visible presence. The gardaí do a very good job in terms of managing crime in the city, particularly more serious crime which we haven’t seen happening to anywhere near the same extent as other cities.

“Where it does happen, arrests and prosecutions tend to follow very quickly, but there’s understandably concern more around lower level crime and antisocial behaviour which can make people feel very uncomfortable, so that needs to be tackled.”

Challenge

Another challenge that business analysts say could cause economic upturn in 2025 is America’s new president-elect, Donald Trump, but Mr Healy says he is optimistic that a good working relationship can be formed across the Atlantic.

“There are two sides to the Trump issue in that Irish companies do a lot of business in the US and export a lot of goods, but then on flipside, there are beneficiaries of a lot of US companies here. Businesses who are looking to set up operations in Europe have traditionally seen Ireland and Cork in particular as a very positive environment.

“Any time you have a new administration, what’s important is that our government, diplomatic and business organisations work to build new relationships with them — there’s a lot of speculation right now in terms of what the focus of a new Trump administration will be, but at this point no measures have been taken.

“There’s an opportunity there, as there always is, to engage and build a very positive relationship with the US administration, regardless of which party is in power.”

Opportunity

In terms of our own government, Mr Healy said: “There’s a real opportunity for the Government to move forward with the Cork light rail project. We’ll be very much pushing that it becomes a part of the programme for government and that real progress can be made on it over the next five year term in terms of planning moving forward, funding being put in place, plans going out to tender and construction getting underway — that would be a major step forward.

“Even though the outgoing government reaffirmed its commitment to the Cork event centre and a new process will take place in terms of a retender, it’s important the incoming administration restates that commitment and puts on the record its intention to see the event centre built over the next couple of years.”

He mentioned several road infrastructure projects that are important, including the Cork to Limerick Motorway, the N25 to East Cork and the N28 to Ringaskiddy, but said that there are “two routes of particular importance that haven’t had the same level of priority.”

Vital

The Northern Distributor Road is vital for lots of businesses, but in particular Apple, who are having difficulty getting to work in private cars and on private transport at the moment, he said.

Additionally, the R624 connecting Cork to Cobh, which he described as “a key enabler” for activities in the Cork Docklands. “We recently saw a planning application be refused due to a lack of road infrastructure, so clearly that needs to be developed in order to see apartments and other amenities put in place, creating jobs and places for people to live.

“That relatively small piece of infrastructure, unless delivered quickly, has the potential to slow up the fantastic work on the Cork docklands.”

He concluded: “This is a really positive time for Cork, we’ve seen significant levels of investment, a growing employment base, a growing population and improvements in infrastructure.

“Of course there are challenges we have got to overcome, but every successful and growing city around the world has similar challenges, so it’s important to recognise that Cork is in a good place, poised for significant further development, and will continue to be a great place to build a life.”