Eli Lilly seeks planning for 360 space car park at its Cork plant 

Consultants for the maker of blockbuster weight loss drugs, Eli Lilly, have cited health and safety concerns at the firm’s expanding Kinsale plant for the need for a temporary 360 space car park.

Planning documents lodged with Cork County Council state that the Lilly Kinsale plant produces five of Lilly’s top eight medicines globally, “showing how important the site is to their global operations”.

Lilly Kinsale is the company’s biggest manufacturing facility outside the US and a planning report lodged with the temporary car park application states that over the past five years, Eli Lilly has secured permission for a wide range of developments at Kinsale and these projects reflect a sustained period of expansion and modernisation across the pharmaceutical campus, with many involving construction activity, increased staffing, and logistical complexity.

Increased volume of personnel

Planners said the Eli Lilly return-to-office policy came into effect in mid-2025 and together with the construction traffic is leading to an increased volume of personnel on site. It warned that “this is leading to cars parking on footpaths and edges of car-park access roads. This presents a health and safety issue to the site”.

The ARUP planning report cautions that “without additional temporary parking, issues such as congestion, parking shortages, and knock on disruption to the surrounding road network and community amenities could occur”. 

The report states that the Eli Lilly Kinsale site “is located in close proximity to Dunderrow village, which would most likely be used as an alternative parking solution without the proposed development”.

Planners said the current average personnel number on site per day is 1,920 while the current number of car parking spaces on site is 1,654. Meanwhile, the current number of average cars parked on site is 1,690, which results in an average of 36 parked “uncontrolled” on-site.