Lord Mayor: ‘Let’s make a better Cork now’

The future Cork city will be a city with a lot of more people. We currently have a population of 225,000 people. We will have passed quarter of a million by 2030, and we are working towards a population of 340,000 people by 2040.

Much work has gone into planning how we can meet these targets.

There are many challenges to be met. Housing is an ongoing problem. Planning towards housing a growing population will be difficult to achieve.

Since the boundary extension in 2019, Cork is a larger city. We have identified many areas in which we can grow.

Guiding the development of the Docklands will be the biggest area of population growth in the city. The hope is that upwards of 40,000 people will eventually live in this part of the city.

An immediate difficulty is how we can make sure everyone gets around in the city. It is a significant challenge.

These days, we find ourselves as one of the more congested cities in Europe. How are we to work towards reducing the congestion that exists, while thinking of infrastructure that will help the larger number of people, we expect to be living in the city, to get around.

It may be the hardest circle we have to square.

Discouraging the unnecessary use of cars while encouraging and providing more and better public transport are changes we must bring about.

A lot of this will be bus-based but better suburban rail and the introduction of a light rail system are vital parts of the plan to help us get around a bigger but more crowded Cork into the future.

How we can be a cycling city again is another important part of the jigsaw.

Cycling is not only one of the easiest forms of transport, it’s also good for our health.

The challenge in having a better cycling infrastructure is to make sure that it is safe and convenient to cycle.

We’ve made a significant start, but we are still a long way from achieving an integrated cycle network that is needed in the city.

Another balancing act we need to do is to have a city where space exists. While we try to house additional people, we need more open space, more public space and more green space in our city.

The development of The Marina and Marina Park shows what is being done and what can be done, but in the city centre, in particular, we should be trying to make pocket parks available for people to meet and congregate and enjoy.

A strong regional economy is needed to ensure that Cork can meet the needs of its growing population and help our attempts to improve the quality of life for all our citizens.

Cork is already established as a strong centre for life science industries and for information technology companies.

The future potential of Cork, as a port city and harbour, can be as a leader in the renewable energy sector.

We are beginning to develop strong expertise in renewable energy and the future potential is very very significant.

We have enormous pride in our Cork culture, whether it’s in sporting activities, music, theatre or literature, Cork has a proud history.

Now that we have become a multicultural city, I believe the future can be even brighter.

Our culture can be only added to, improved upon and brought to new places by the influences of those who in recent years have come to live and work among us.

I want to see a Cork that adds to and builds upon our strong tradition where we work together to make a better city. The deep traditions of volunteerism where we have the coming together of people in communities to help those who, as individuals, find life difficult on their own.

Whether that is finding more and better opportunities for our younger people, finding support and companionship for our older citizens, while at the same time never forgetting to learn from their lifelong experience and wisdom.

Whether it’s in identifying social problems that sadly exist and need to be responded to, that we need to lessen and seek to eliminate in our society...whether it’s problems of drug dependence, or the unacceptable use of violence; or in not meeting those needs of those undergoing homelessness; there are many social issues that only through community effort we can now and in the future be able to tackle. None of these issues are issues we can never be complacent about.

Cork is a proud place. While others may smile wryly at what they see as our notions, we have much to be proud about.

Much of this pride comes from confidence of who we are.

Through that confidence, I believe that future Cork can and will happen, and will be a better healthier, safer and happier place.

This won’t magically happen, but it can happen when we all believe it can. Let’s make a better Cork now.