Health and safety cited in Eli Lilly plans for 360 car spaces at Kinsale plant

One of the Eli Lilly production buildings at its state-of-the-art facility in Dunderrow, Kinsale, Co Cork.

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 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.

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”.

36 'uncontrolled' cars

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 cars parked uncontrolled on site.

ARUP state that the proposed development is required to address a short‑term deficit in parking and construction lay-down capacity arising from the permitted projects at the existing Eli Lilly Kinsale facility.

It adds that the deficit “is already leading to unmanaged overspill parking, giving rise to health and safety concerns and the potential for displacement of parking demand onto the surrounding local road network and nearby settlements” and that “the proposed development provides an appropriate and proportionate response to this identified need”.

Today, Eli Lilly employs around 3,500 people across four main areas in Ireland, with its manufacturing sites in Kinsale and Limerick, a business centre in Little Island, Cork, and a commercial team spread across the country.

Lilly Kinsale produces Tirzepatide, the active ingredient for its blockbuster GLP-1 drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro and sales of Mounjaro and Zepbound accounted for 56% of the company’s annual $65bn (€56bn) revenue last year.

Eli Lilly’s lead position in the weight-loss market also saw it become the first pharma company with a $1trn valuation last year.