Taoiseach wishes to ‘drive on’ with building 10k Cork homes on city's docklands

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said his message is to “drive on” with the building of 10,000 new homes on the Cork Docklands site, adding that “a substantial amount” of those homes will be affordable, social, and cost-rental.

Accompanied by housing minister James Browne and minister of state Jerry Buttimer, Mr Martin was inspecting progress on more than 600 new State-owned affordable homes at two housing schemes at Marina Depot on the Cork Docklands site, and at Horgan’s Quay.

The projects at Marina Depot and at Horgan’s Quay involve a total of 639 new homes being built under the Land Development Agency (LDA)’s Project Tosaigh.

At Horgan’s Quay, the LDA is working with HQ Developments to deliver 302 new cost-rental apartments.

The Marina Depot project is a collaboration between Glenveagh Properties and the LDA, and will contain 337 new homes, including 260 cost-rental and 77 social apartments —which will be part of a wider Glenveagh development that will include 1,178 apartments.

The biggest regeneration site in the State, Cork Docklands covers 360 acres, with 10,000 new homes planned.

Mr Martin said it was too early to say how many would be social housing, but he indicated that it would be a significant number, saying: “A lot of what is happening already is affordable and social, so a substantial amount will be social and affordable, cost-rental as well, a lot will depend on how this will evolve over the next two to three years, but there’s fairly rapid progress.”

Instancing the Marina Promenade, Mr Martin added that, in the past, new housing developments had not always been accompanied by amenities.

He said: “Here we have the amenities provided, and there’s more to come, in advance of a lot of the housing, and so we’ll be looking at school sites and other amenity sites as well — playing pitches and so on — to make this a really thriving community where people can live — yes, in density — but with really first-class amenities and services, and I’m really looking forward to the Atlantic Pond being reopened as well.”