McDonald's refused planning permission for 24-hour Cork drive thru

The drive-thru restaurant was planned for the entrance to the Fota Retail Park near Carrigtwohill.  Picture: Chani Anderson

McDonald's has been refused planning permission for a 24-hour drive-thru restaurant at Cork's Fota Retail Park, in a setback for the fast food giant's plans to open 25 new restaurants here over the next five years.

The single-storey outlet was to be built at the entrance to the retail park near Carrigtwohill on a 0.4-hectare site. 

The applicant, McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland Ltd, had wanted the outlet to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The plans included a 12m totem sign, 35 car parking spaces, eight EV charging points and a dual-lane drive-thru.

In its decision, the council said the land is zoned “Business and General Employment” under the County Development Plan 2022. That zoning is meant to make such areas the main locations for employment uses.

The council said town centres and neighbourhood centres should be the main locations for retail and for uses that provide “goods or services principally to visiting members of the public”. It said the restaurant would be outside any town centre or designated retail area. If permitted, it would “materially contravene” the Development Plan.

The council also said approval would set “an undesirable precedent” for similar developments that would threaten the vitality of town centres and “generate additional car-oriented trips on the road network not designed for this purpose”.

McDonald's had argued that permission for a fast food restaurant and drive-thru was granted on the same site in 2006. That scheme was never built, and the permission has since expired.

Traffic and queuing had been raised by council planners at a pre-planning meeting in September 2025. McDonald's currently operates 96 restaurants in Ireland, all run by franchisees. It plans to open its 100th next year, the 50th anniversary of its first Irish restaurant on Dublin’s Grafton Street.