Where the money will be spent as Council agrees €362m budget for city
Meeting venue, Cork City Hall: Several councillors voting for the budget made the point that those who voted against would likely still share posts on social media welcoming improvements to roads or footpaths in their local area.
Cork City Council’s annual budget was agreed this week, as councillors spent over two hours debating whether the over €363m package went far enough to address the city’s issues.
Fianna Fáil’s nine councillors, Fine Gael’s five, Labour’s three and the Green party’s three all indicated that they would be supporting the budget — the four parties have an agreement to do so.
The Green party’s Dan Boyle told that it was very important that a budget was passed. “The failure of any local authority is seen as a non-performance of one of its key functions and allows the Minister for Local Government to suspend or stand down its elected members. It almost happened in Cork in 1991 and did happen in Dublin in 1969.”
Many councillors outside of this pact had spoken to Fianna Fáil’s Seán Martin, head of the council’s finance committee, in advance of the meeting, and been asked to support the budget, but it was unsure how they would vote until they spoke in the council chamber.
With 20 votes in favour, and only a potential eleven against, the budget was set to pass regardless. However, councillors from across all parties and none still made contributions explaining why they were voting the way they were voting and encouraging others to do the same, and councillors debated the budget for more than two hours before votes were cast, with some sniping at those who were voting differently to them from both sides.
Sinn Féin’s Joe Lynch explained that though he and his fellow party members had voted for the last budget, they would not be supporting this one, and he and his party colleague Michelle Gould spoke on numerous issues in the city, largely housing, that they felt the budget didn’t properly address.
People Before Profit’s Brian McCarthy and the Worker’s party’s Ted Tynan said they would not be supporting the budget for similar reasons, while Independent Ireland’s Noel O’Flynn and Independents Paudie Dineen and Albert Deasy raised concerns about the 5% commercial rate increase included in the budgetary package, and said they would not vote for the overall budget, as a result.
Social Democrats’ Niamh O’Connor was the first member of her party to vote on a Cork City Council budget. She was co-opted onto the council last year after Pádraig Rice, the first Social Democrat councillor ever elected to Cork City Council, was elected to the Dáil. Last year’s budget vote fell between Mr Rice’s election to the Dáil and Ms O’Connor’s co-option.
Though the party’s councillor sits with Labour and the Green party in the council chamber as part of a “progressive alliance”, they are not a member of the pact with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that includes voting on budgets and for Lord Mayors.
She told that she decided to vote in favour of the budget, after a long day of going back and forth on the idea, explaining: “I spoke in my first speech before the council about the need for the council to deliver on basic services like footpaths, playgrounds and pedestrian crossings and the budget makes significant provision towards those goals.
“I agree with councillors who are voting against on the basis that homelessness is seemingly unstoppable and a stain on the state, but I don't believe voting against this budget will change that issue. The housing crisis is a problem caused by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments ineffective housing policy and will not be resolved by voting against the Cork City Council budget.”
Several councillors voting for made the point that those who voted against would likely still share posts on social media welcoming improvements to roads or footpaths in their local area, saying they had advocated for them, though they had not voted for the budget which would make the expenditure possible.
Ms O’Connor said in her speech that she thought councillors were entitled to vote however they liked on the budget, and still celebrate funding allocations in their ward.
Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy also opted to vote in favour of the budget, bringing the total to 22 in favour and nine against.
Overall, the budget consisted of a €362.2m package of expenditure, a near €36m increase on 2025’s budget.
The main contributors to the increase in expenditure were a €14.9m increase in homeless funding; a €8.7m increase in capital advance leasing facility (CALF) funding/repair and lease – funding support provided by local authorities to approved housing bodies to help fund the construction or purchase of new social housing units; a €1.1m increase in funding for Croi Conaithe vacant property grant; a €3.8m increase in payroll to meet national pay agreements; a €1m increase in local area committee funding; a €1m increase in the Disabled Person’s Grant fund and a €650,000 increase in footpath repairs and tree management.
The City Council also approved a 5% increase in commercial rates but did not increase car parking charges for either on-street or the City Council-owned car parks, though the budget documentation notes that the council is set to lose revenue in this area as many on-street parking spots are removed due to roads being reconfigured for enhanced public realm, active travel or bus corridors.
Recommending the budget to council on Wednesday night, chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan also made reference to the index-linked annual payment Cork City Council has to pay to Cork County Council for at least 10 years under the terms of the 2019 city boundary extension, and which has increased substantially in recent years.
“This is not a sustainable cost for Cork City Council. The council is engaging with the department in relation to the additional indexation cost,” she said, telling councillors that they will fight for this payment not to continue after 2029.
The budget highlighted a continued focus on housing, with almost 3,500 social and affordable homes under construction in the city, either directly by the City Council and in collaboration with the Land Development Agency and approved housing bodies.
A total of 452 new affordable homes are programmed for delivery up to 2026, with construction of 290 complete, sales closed on 280 homes, and the balance of 162 under construction across five schemes.
The budget also projected that 11,000 repair requests will be received for action by direct labour next year, with 7,000 repair cases to be actioned, and 300 properties to benefit under an energy-efficiency retrofitting programme. The council expects to return up to 300 vacant properties from repair and to carry out 10,000 inspections of private rental properties.
Transport is also a focus in the budget, which mentions that the council was allocated €34.5m NTA funding for sustainable transport measures, with work ongoing to advance schemes including the Lehenaghmore Road, the Marina Promenade Active Travel Scheme, the Ballyvolane Strategic Transport Corridor - North Ring Road to Mervue, the Blarney Business Park Linkage scheme, and the Glanmire to Dunkettle Scheme.
The combined funds for support to events, community, arts and sports grants amount to €2.7m. A contribution of €981,800 has been provided for arts bodies, including Cork Opera House.
As well as this, a provision of €324,800 has been included for grants made by the council's arts committee, with €260,000 set aside for community grants. The budget also provides for €650,000 in sports grants, €238,100 for the provision of playgrounds, and €100,100 for Tidy District Grants.
A sum of €188,100 has been provided under the Creative Ireland fund, and €1.98m has been provided for social inclusion and community activation programmes.
A total of €3m has also been set aside for the Local Area Committees - €600,000 per committee - to be spent at the discretion of each committee on projects such as estates resurfacing, traffic calming, pedestrian crossing, and footpath repair.
The budget includes the continuation of the Economic Development Fund with €770,400 set aside, while €193,500 has been provided to support initiatives under a planned new City Centre Strategy.
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