Future Cork: Stadiums like Páirc Uí Chaoimh should be seen as municipal arenas, says Taoiseach

Micheál Martin said Cork should harness Virgin Media Park, Turner's Cross, and the 'extraordinary facility' at Páirc Uí Chaoimh

Taoiseach Michéal Martin was speaking during the Future Cork event hosted by the 'Irish Examiner' at the Metropole Hotel. Picture: Chani Anderson

Cork's sporting venues should be viewed as municipal arenas rather than being run by a single sporting body, the Taoiseach has said.

Micheál Martin told the Irish Examiner's Future Cork event on Friday that sport could be used to increase the profile of what is a "great sporting city".

Part of this, he said, might see the likes of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Virgin Media Park, and Turner's Cross viewed as municipal facilities which are not run by any one sporting organisation. He claimed the "days are gone" when sporting bodies view stadia as solely their own property.

"There is something there to harness and capture," Mr Martin said in his speech on the future of the city.

"Páirc Uí Chaoimh is an extraordinary facility. To a certain extent the GAA is struggling with the sustainability of all of that and I think their view is it should be, ultimately, a municipal stadium. 

"So how do we as a city harness a resource like Páirc Uí Chaoimh, like Virgin Media Park? And the sporting bodies like the IRFU, they're moving in that direction.

"How can we develop the Turner's Cross facility more and see them as municipal resources that will attract more activity to the city?"

Mr Martin said that discussions around local authority ownership of facilities are "very embryonic", but that Páirc Uí Chaoimh is an "extraordinary municipal facility".

"The days are gone when sporting organisations are looking at these stadia as their stadium, that they determine what goes on when. The sustainability of those facilities demands a broader approach and participation.

"That is significantly added value into the future for us."

Mr Martin said that as much as he did not like using the term "brand", the success and following of the Cork hurlers made them one.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh GAA stadium. File picture: Dan Linehan

The Taoiseach also said he hoped the Cork City Futures Group, which he will bring to Cabinet soon, would "reimagine" how the "core of the city" looks into the future. 

He said he believed the future of the city would be "more residential", but that projects such as the Cork Luas would be "critical".

"I think the city of the future will be with a stronger residential component to it than perhaps the last 50 years has, and we've got to reimagine that.

"I think the model of cities is changing... what can this group do to look at the long-term sustainability of the city, but also to reimagine it into the future? It'll be different. Retail will be different into the future. And the connectivity piece would be critical to that. 

"The light rail will happen, Luas Cork will happen. We're fully invested in that."

Asked what one project in the city he would complete overnight, Mr Martin said the €90m overhaul of the Crawford Art Gallery, which he said will be "an iconic building".

• Paul Hosford, Acting Political Editor

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