Metropolitan plans have bright future for people living in Cork
The Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy builds upon the ambitious growth targets for Cork set out in the NPF and seeks to strengthen the Cork Metropolitan area as an international location of scale, and a primary driver of economic and population growth in the region. Picture: Artist Impression by Philip Watkin of 3ddesignshop.com
Cork’s population is set to grow across the city and county over the coming years, and national plans have focused on making the Rebel County a viable alternative to Dublin with plans for investment, jobs growth, housing developments and amenity enhancements all to the fore.
With government plans to address housing deficits and provide employment opportunities, invest in and upgrade the Port of Cork, increase health facilities and services, and expand educational institutes in Cork, the aim is to build a brighter future for the region.
The National Planning Framework, or Project Ireland 2040, has set out a number of targets and projects for Cork to achieve to ensure it is ready to deal with Ireland’s predicted population growth, with a million more people expected in the country over the next 20 years or so.
The initiatives and developments set out in the framework seek to make Cork a great place to live and work, with national sights set on housing, jobs, sustainable development and transport as well as key growth enablers, including greenfield developments, education enhancements and increased connectivity.
In fact, the framework states that it supports “ambitious growth targets” to enable Cork to grow by at least 50% to 2040.
The government’s plan stated that building on Cork’s potential is critical to further enhancing Ireland’s metropolitan profile.
“This requires an ambitious vision for Cork, at the heart of which must be an internationally competitive, sustainable urban environment,” the framework stated.
“This means providing housing, transport, amenities and energy systems in a best practice European context.”
A major part of the NPF is the Southern Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) which includes the Cork Metropolitan Area Strategic Plan (MASP).
The MASP builds upon the ambitious growth targets for Cork set out in the NPF and seeks to strengthen the Cork Metropolitan area as an international location of scale, and a primary driver of economic and population growth in the region.
The MASP envisages Cork city to grow from around 210,000 people in 2016 to a total of 289,000 people in Cork city by 2031, requiring a growth in employment of 65,000 extra jobs in the Cork Metropolitan Area.
The MASP recognises that this level of growth will require significant investment in supporting infrastructure to deliver the houses, jobs and services.
The National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2027, a major part of the NPF, sets out to support the achievement of more balanced development of Ireland’s three regions: North, West and South.
The NDP states that the success of Ireland’s main cities, including Cork, is “central to the success of these regions”.
The National Planning Framework highlights the government plans to ensure that at least half of all new homes that are targeted in Cork are delivered within the existing built-up footprints of the city.
The framework also highlighted the importance of growing and diversifying Cork’s employment base in the years to come.
“This means creating the conditions to attract and retain talented innovators and entrepreneurs and to be accessible to investors,” the framework explained.
The recent local development plans for Cork indicated that Metropolitan Cork will continue to be the biggest jobs market in the county and development plan policies will continue to support the growth of employment in this area.
Carrigtwohill, Little Island, Ringaskiddy, and Whitegate were identified as strategic employment locations suitable for large-scale employment development in the plans, retaining their roles as locations for Foreign Direct Investment.
The National Planning Framework highlighted the importance of this, stating that the Industrial Development Authority’s (IDA) investment in strategic sites to date has yielded significant projects that would not have been possible unless such sites were available for investors.
“It is also evidenced by the clustering of companies in locations such as Ringaskiddy in Cork,” the framework added.
Speaking earlier this year, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar explained that the IDA plans for 2021 were written with continued disruption from Covid-19 and Brexit in mind.
However, he added that around half of all investment made by FDI companies in 2020 went to counties outside of Dublin.
“We will continue to seek out opportunities for all parts of the country, not just our major cities and towns,” he stated.
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