Martin: We’ll have to reimagine Cork city centre for the future

Cork will need to reimagine its city centre and the surrounding suburbs for the future, taking care to retain its own unique character, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

In a recent interview with The Echo, Tánaiste Simon Harris said that he was eager that the Cork city centre taskforce, promised in the programme for government, be established by the end of the year.

Asked if he was anxious to reclaim the taskforce from the Fine Gael leader, Mr Martin laughed and said: “I don’t have to reclaim anything when it comes to Cork.”

“Of course, I haven’t been waiting for taskforces to invest in Cork and to develop initiatives in Cork, and I think the docklands has been a really good example,” added the Taoiseach.

“I’m very pleased with how Cork City Council, the LDA [the Land Development Agency], are working together to really drive the development on the docklands.”

Mr Martin said he had given “careful consideration” to the future needs of the city, and believed that the terms of reference needed to be correctly identified for any examination of those needs.

“As someone who’s lived adjacent to the city centre all my life, in terms of being brought up in Turner’s Cross, I’m very conscious that we’ll have to reimagine the city centre for the future, and then the immediate suburbs around the city centre, the South Parish, the Turner’s Cross area, the north central area, Blackpool, the North Chapel area, the Shandon area, and then out to UCC and that area.

“What can we do to reinvigorate it, to reimagine it for the future?”

Cities are changing, Mr Martin said, and what was needed for the future was more than “a short- term taskforce” to come up with recommendations.

“The Dublin taskforce came up with good recommendations, and I think we can do that here.

“The composition is important, but we have to give it a bit of thought, because the city is developing outwards.

“It’s a growing city, we have to be very careful that as it expands, and it will grow in population, that it retains its character, and the city centre, in my view, gives Cork its character,” he said.

“I just went through the English Market earlier this morning, and that is the kind of thing we want to retain and nurture in our city into the future.”