Coveney: 25% of Cork yet to be built
Tánaiste Simon Coveney delivered that message to hundreds of business leaders in Cork, saying the city and county had to see a huge chunk of the €116bn national development plan in order to reach its potential and cater for a 60% rise in population.
He said Cork’s docklands was key to unlocking the city’s potential, as was constructing the M20 motorway between Cork and Limerick, and the eastern side of the Northern Ring Road to open up the northside of the city.
Buildings to rival Ireland’s tallest, the Elysian, could become commonplace, he said.
“In my view, the Elysian will be pretty commonplace along our quaysides in terms of setting a benchmark for height,” said Mr Coveney. “In fact, we may well go above it in terms of many of the new plans currently in train.”
He also said going back to the drawing board on the National Broadband Plan was not an option.
The plan has been under a cloud since Eir pulled out of the tendering process, leaving Enet as the sole bidder.
“What we are not going to do, because Eir pulled out, is start again. If we start again, we will be here in two or three years’ time in the same position we are in today. We will get to 100% coverage — it will be expensive but it is worth doing,” he said.
“We hope by September that the tendering process and the legals around it will be finalised so we can get on and spend in and around €300m-€400m. I expect to actually pay for or subsidise putting fibre into the ground in isolated or rural parts of Ireland to ensure we don’t have an urban-rural divide.”
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