The National Transport Authority says it hopes to achieve some quick-wins on the bus and rail network once its ambitious €3.5bn transport strategy for the greater Cork area is adopted.

A €1bn 25-stop light-rail system linking Ballincollig to Mahon via a new docklands bridge is among the proposals contained in the long-awaited Cork Metropolitan Area Draft Transport Strategy (CMATS).

Work on a €1bn light rail system for Cork will not start until 2031 at the earliest with the focus in the interim on improved roads and increased bus lanes.

A €1bn light rail system between Ballincollig and Mahon Point via the city centre, as well as eight new railway stations and 100km of bus lanes, are contained in a radical new transport plan for Cork.

John Allen remains the last Cork hurling manager to win the All-Ireland — and the last Limerick manager to win the Munster Championship, yet his achievements and methods have tended to be underestimated.

Convincing international investors to consider locations outside of Dublin and other large urban areas remains a challenge, the IDA has admitted.

The Government has come under fire for not marketing regional towns for foreign direct investment after the Department of Business revealed almost the number of available IDA sites far outnumber those occupied.

Croke Park hierarchy and the Munster Council remain confident Cork GAA will be able to cover the €23m debt resulting from the redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, writes Eoghan Cormican.

A 20-acre landbank on the northside of Cork city holds the key to paying off the €23m debt Cork GAA is left with following the redevelopment of Páirc Ui Chaoimh.

Kerry football legend Pat Spillane has ‘red-carded’ the Mackinnon recommendations for a major boundary extension of Cork City, but said the county council will have to cede more territory than it’s currently offering.

The first draft of an enlarged Cork City to drive the region’s growth for the next half century should emerge within weeks.

Securing a significant extension of Cork’s city boundary is now of national importance, a city councillor warned last night as they rejected a land offer from the county.

Local Government Minister Eoghan Murphy has remained tight-lipped on a surprise offer from Cork County Council to cede land to the city.

Data justifying the scale of the proposed Cork City boundary extension has emerged ahead of a crunch meeting on an alternative boundary suggestion.

Cork County Council would immediately relinquish commercial rates and local property tax (LPT) worth in excess of €16m per year if its revised plan for the city council boundary extension is accepted by the Implementation Oversight Group.

A comprehensive plan is needed for two IDA-owned sites in Cork — one lying idle in Fermoy since 2002 and another in Kilbarry on Cork City’s northside that is “underutilised for years and growing grass”, according to two TDs.

Tommy Barker reports on a Cork city property which has been carefully rebuilt with salvaged materials after being completely gutted in a fire.

Waterford lands at Kilbarry which had been at the centre of protracted legal and lending dispute with AIB, involving a €25 million loan to speculators have been put for sale, with zoning secured for residential development, and with a €3 million price tag.

Hours of behind-the-scenes talks have prevented plans for a major new town in Co Cork from being scuppered.

Planners believe they have turned the corner in getting a new town approved for Co Cork after amending housing density proposals and having discussions with the National Roads Authority (NRA) about a road link.

A teenage girl was raped in a brutal attack at a secluded area in Waterford which some locals had wanted closed off because of a rape there nine years ago.

French skincare giant Yves Rocher is shedding jobs and cutting operational activity by a third at its Cork manufacturing plant.

The Supreme Court has described as “understated” a finding that businessman Philip Lynch gave “hopelessly confused and unreliable” evidence concerning the circumstances leading to a €25m loan being issued to buy development lands in Waterford.

Plans for new commuter railway stations in Cork have reached “the end of the line” due to a lack of funding and the rejection of the county council’s plan to build a new town at Monard, near Blarney.

The family of a US heroine who is set to be commemorated for her extraordinary courage in sacrificing her life to save fellow workers in a factory inferno have traced her roots to West Cork.

Despite 39 years of work during which he paid about €78,000 in accumulated pension contributions into the retirement fund, Seán Maher was looking at a pension of €50 or €60 per week once he reached 65, thanks to the “double insolvency” that hit Waterford Crystal in 2009.

The final phase of Waterford City’s flood alleviation scheme has been launched.

In the first of a five-day series on unemployment, we focus on the county of Waterford, which has suffered more than its fair share of job losses, writes Conor Kane

Zuzka should open her account over hurdles in the Irish Stallion Farms Mares Maiden Hurdle in Sligo tomorrow.

THE turkey is finished. All the presents are opened.

THE Commercial Court will rule next month whether businessman Philip Lynch and his family have any liability to Allied Irish Banks for a €25 million loan issued to them to buy development lands in Co Waterford.

THE Commercial Court has reserved judgment on the action by businessman Philip Lynch and his family aimed at preventing Allied Irish Banks pursuing them for repayment of a €25 million loan to buy development lands in Waterford.

THE long-running action by businessman Philip Lynch and his family aimed at preventing AIB pursuing them for repayment of a €25 million development loan is expected to conclude at the Commercial Court today.

BUSINESSMAN Philip Lynch and his family have failed to produce evidence to show Allied Irish Banks misrepresented the nature of a €25 million loan made to them and developer Gerry Conlan, the Commercial Court was told yesterday.

A SOLICITOR has told the Commercial Court the final terms of a €25 million loan issued by Allied Irish Banks to buy development lands in Waterford gave the bank full recourse to businessman Philip Lynch and his family for repayment of that sum.

AN action by One51 investment group chief executive Philip Lynch and his family aimed at preventing AIB pursuing them over a €25 million loan to buy development lands has been adjourned to next week.

THE French businessman who is on a mission to plant 50 million trees around the world by 2014, has travelled to Blarney Castle to take in the estates’s arboretum which boasts a collection of trees that are up to 600 years old.

A PERCH on Cork’s main Bishopstown Road, heading west from the suburban centre, CUH and the Bishopstown bar, can be yours for around €335,000.

WATERFORD Crystal champagne flutes sparkled in the sunshine yesterday as hundreds gathered in Waterford city to celebrate a new dawn for the city’s best-known export.

THE Government has given the green light to create plans for the first purpose-built town in Munster.

OBJECTIONS against a €60 million investment on Cork city’s northside, at the old Sunbeam Wolsey site, have been rejected by An Bord Pleanála, clearing the way for a development which can cater for up to 3,000 jobs.

A SMART, four-bed bungalow at Kilbarry, Kilmurry, Co Cork, at €245,000 is attractive and affordable, says agent Killian Lynch, (along with joint agents Property Partners O’Mahony Walsh).

TWENTY thousand tonnes of hot air are up for grabs in Waterford, as the Green Party arrives in town today for its annual conference.