Moira Murrell: County Cork is meeting the challenges of growth head-on
Cork County Council, Ireland's largest local authority by land area and second largest by population, is facing the housing challenges of a growing and diversifying population head-on.
Under the National Planning Framework 2018, the county was earmarked for a population increase of 105,000 by 2040 — equivalent to a 30% rise.
The council is awaiting new guidance which is expected will outline even more ambitious growth targets for Cork. This builds on a trend of consistent population expansion in Cork since the 1990s.
By collaborating with public agencies and private stakeholders, the council is facilitating not just housing delivery but the infrastructure that makes growth viable — jobs, transport, roads, water services, and town regeneration.
At the same time, it is working to protect the natural environment and align development with national housing priorities.
Cork County Council now delivers more new homes annually than any region outside of the greater Dublin area, and its job growth continues to outpace the national average.
Cork County Council is now at the midpoint of the current county development plan, and housing planning permissions are running 12% above target.
However, like other counties, the pace of housing delivery is trailing permissions.
Encouragingly, 2024 marked a turning point when urban housing commencements surged, matching the combined totals of homes completed in urban areas in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
A case in point is Midleton, which accounted for 41% of all urban housing commencements in the county last year. Much of this activity is tied to the Water Rock Urban Expansion Area, a landmark Cork County Council-led interagency project supported by the Government's local infrastructure housing activation fund.
Once complete, Water Rock will deliver 2,500 homes, three schools, a new rail station, parks, and a neighbourhood centre, all integrated into sustainable transport networks.
Water Rock is one of five designated urban expansion areas, alongside Shannonpark in Carrigaline, Carrigtwohill North, Ballynoe in Cobh, and the Monard strategic development zone.
These areas represent the future of housing in Cork and are strategically located, infrastructure-ready, and designed to support complete communities. The council is working towards securing Part 8 approval for critical infrastructure in Carrigtwohill, paving the way for 3,500 new homes served by rail, bus, and greenways.
Since 2017, more than 3,400 new social housing units have been delivered in Cork under the national rebuilding Ireland and housing for all strategies. These homes have been built through a blend of direct construction on council-owned land, turnkey developments, and joint ventures with approved housing bodies.
New social housing schemes have been completed across every major town — from Youghal and Carrigaline to Skibbereen and Mallow — and in many smaller settlements. One example is the Convent Rd scheme in Doneraile, where 17 high-quality homes ranging from one-bedroom to four-bedroom units were built on council-owned land.
Two recent turnkey social developments include Mountain View and Nead Na Lachan — a development of 14 A2-rated houses.
Housing delivery is not just about numbers, it is also about place-making. Cork County Council is aligning new home construction with town centre regeneration.
In Macroom, two long-vacant sites at Sleaveen East are being brought back to life. Eight apartments have already been completed, and work is under way on four townhouses and 12 more apartments. Similar regeneration-led projects are active in Bantry, Charleville, Midleton, and Youghal.
The regeneration of the former Mercy Convent in Bantry is an example of what is possible through partnership. In collaboration with Clúid Housing, 18 homes for older residents were delivered alongside the preservation of the convent's historic chapel. Funded through the Department of Housing's capital assistance scheme, this project is an example of sensitive, inclusive development that meets today's needs while respecting yesterday's heritage.
Beyond new builds, Cork County Council is also making the most of existing stock. In 2024, 864 social tenancies were created across Cork through the refurbishment and re-letting of homes.
Since 2022, 240 affordable homes have been offered for sale in locations such as Carrigaline, Cobh and Mallow.
Of these, 160 have been sold and the remainder are under offer.
Cork County Council aims to considerably accelerate the level of affordable housing provision over the lifetime of the housing for all strategy until 2030.
Energy efficiency is also a key pillar of our housing strategy, and Cork County Council is aiming to retrofit up to 200 houses annually.
Over 400 council-owned dwellings have been retrofitted to achieve a B2 BER in the past two years, cutting energy bills while contributing to Ireland's climate goals.
Under the Croí Cónaithe vacant homes refurbishment grant, homeowners can access up to €70,000 to transform vacant properties into permanent homes. Cork County Council has received more than 1,000 applications, with nearly 800 already approved, a clear sign of community appetite to revive and reuse existing buildings.
Cork County Council recognises that housing is the biggest challenge facing Ireland. The council is committed to driving and supporting housing delivery across a range of measures, working with national Government and local partners to meet the growing demand.
Moira Murrell is the CEO of Cork County Council
Read More
Huge demand expected for affordable homes in Midleton as applications open
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
‘Cruel decision' blast over new rent cap shake-up as Irish renters brace for price hikes amid calls for more homes
OPPOSITION parties have blasted the government's rent shake up - with the Cabinet set to vote in an easing of controls this week. Landlords will be able to 3 Irish renters are set to brace for price hikes amid a major rent cap shake up Credit: Getty Images - Getty 3 Changes to the Rent Pressure Zones will be brought to Housing minister James Browne Credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Rents for newly-built Changes to the Rent Pressure Zones will be brought to Government by Minister for Housing Government sources said the move is aimed at giving investors certainty given they currently can make a loss when inflation goes above the two per cent mark. Other measures to close the 'yield' gap and around 'viability' will be taken by READ MORE IN IRISH NEWS For existing renters, nothing changes if they stay in their current tenancy. However if they move, a landlord can reset the rent for the new tenant at the market rate. Any rent increases after that would be capped at the existing two per cent rate. MOST READ ON THE IRISH SUN But last night Chaos in Dail as numerous TDs storm from Chamber amid new speaking time rules The party's housing spokesperson Eoin O'Broin said: 'Cabinet looks set to agree far-reaching and deeply damaging changes to the current Rent Pressure Zone rules. 'The government's plans for a four-tier rental market is utter madness. 'There will now be four different rent-setting rules and eviction rules for tenants; in RPZs and in existing tenancies; in RPZs and in new tenancies in existing rental stock; in RPZs and in new tenancies in newly built rental stock; and renters in tenancies outside RPZs. Any decision the Government takes in relation to RPZs in coming days cannot pull the rug from under renters." Fine Gael TD Deputy Michael Carrigy 'Renters are being punished for the government's own housing failures with even higher rip-off rents and greater uncertainty. 'If these landlords are given the right to resent rents to new market levels, this puts tens of thousands of renters with pre 2022 tenancy agreements at risk of eviction. 'At a time when rents… are already too high, the government's proposals will come as another body-blow to hard-pressed renters.' EVICTION INCREASE FEARS And He fumed: 'Lifting the 2 per cent rent cap is a cruel decision by a government captured by investor fund landlords. 'There is no guarantee removing these rent caps will lead to an increase in supply of rental properties. 'In fact, it will encourage the investor purchase of new build homes as rental properties – further pushing up house prices and locking home buyers out of the housing market. 'Without a no-fault eviction ban in place, lifting the 2 per cent rent cap will lead to increased evictions and homelessness as landlords evict tenants to get a new tenancy and bring the rent up to market rents.' RENT ALREADY HIGH Meanwhile, Chair of the Oireachtas Housing Committee, He explained: 'Any decision the Government takes in relation to RPZs in coming days cannot pull the rug from under renters. 'There can't be just some sort of cliff edge or some switch that just gets flicked in terms of supports and safeguards for renters. 'The level of rent people are paying in this country is extraordinarily high already and that is largely down to a lack of supply which must change. 'We have to ensure we have a viable housing market. "Our clear goal is to increase the supply of new homes.' 3 Sinn Fein housing spokesperson Eoin O'Broin branded the proposal 'utter madness' Credit: PA
Irish Examiner
5 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Overly bureaucratic policies to encourage entrepreneurship need to be reviewed
US president Trump's tariffs merry-go-round continues to dominate global headlines. Firms are weary of the oscillation between 'tariffs-on' and 'tariffs-off' — but this pattern shows no sign of abating. It's a truism at this stage, but uncertainty has become the new normal. Understandably, there is concern among Irish policymakers, and indeed the general public, as to what the new economic dispensation will mean for Ireland's FDI-led economic model. FDI companies operating in Ireland deeply value their presence here and the contribution this has made to their business. Many companies have invested heavily in Ireland and dismantling investment of this nature and locating it somewhere else is not easily done, even if firms were minded to do so. And though we don't detect any appetite of this nature in the market there is an issue, however, in relation to further growth of Ireland's stock of FDI in future. The continuing uncertainty is having an impact on firms' investment decisions as they look to incorporate a 'wait-and-see' approach. In this context, it is important to look at Ireland's capability to continue to deliver economic and employment growth in a (still hypothetical) world where the level of FDI is lower than it has been. The health and prosperity of our homegrown businesses will be vitally important in this scenario. Ireland has a track record of generating world-beating businesses, but the reality is the current policy environment is not calibrated to achieve our full potential in this area. Successive governments have sought to introduce various policies to foster more entrepreneurship. Adjustments are made year-to-year across budgets, but the day-to-day reality has been that the design of some of these schemes is not suitable to achieve the desired ends. Tax practitioners like myself and my colleagues are seeing this on a regular basis as we seek to help clients utilise these schemes. KEEP scheme Take the KEEP scheme for example. This is designed to enable companies to grant share options to employees on a tax-efficient basis, essentially so the share is taxed within the capital gains bracket rather than the income tax bracket. Granting share options to employees is a good way of supplementing their remuneration in an environment where large firms with deep pockets are competing for the same talent. The issue with KEEP, unfortunately, is it is not working in practice; take-up is extremely low. What we see in our practice is that firms will tend to opt for so-called 'unapproved' share schemes rather than KEEP, even though the unapproved schemes are taxed more heavily from the perspective of the employee. Why are they doing this? The biggest reason we can see is the limit that attaches to the total value of share options that can be issued to an individual employee (€300,000). There is also a limit of €6m on the total amount of share options that can be issued (across all employees) and unexercised at any point in time. These limits restrict firms' ability to offer really competitive packages across their companies. Instead, they are opting for unapproved schemes that mean employees can be offered a higher value of share options, albeit in a less tax-efficient manner. The UK equivalent of KEEP, which has much less red tape attached, works much better, and the Government should look to draw lessons from it. Angel investor scheme On March 1, the Government commenced the new angel investor relief scheme which aims to incentivise investment in startups by reducing capital gains tax to 16%-18% on the sale by angel investors of these investments. It is early days, but we are not optimistic for take-up. Again, there is a lot of administration work involved for the small firms that are the targeted beneficiaries. They need to hold two certificates, showing they are an innovative company that is a going concern, and obtaining these involves an application process which many companies would need to undertake. In addition, investment by family members, a common source of funding for early-stage companies, has restrictions attached. Taken together, we believe these will serve as a significant brake on uptake of this scheme. A relaxation of the restrictions on family members and a self-declaration process allowing firms to obtain the qualifying certificates would be preferable. Another way to increase take-up would be to allow the relief to apply where investment is directed towards follow-on or expansion funding, rather than simply angel investment. The above are two examples of how Ireland's policy regime could be enhanced to encourage more entrepreneurship. There are others, including changes to the oft-criticised entrepreneur's relief scheme. We know we have a fantastic, knowledgeable, skilled and talented workforce. We are lucky to have it. But at a time like now, when the outlook for growth in FDI is hazy, it's important that we consider how to drive homegrown businesses forward. In this regard, a wholesale government review of policies towards entrepreneurship is warranted. Brendan Murphy is a tax partner at Baker Tilly Ireland
RTÉ News
5 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Fraught days ahead for Government with planned changes to RPZs
The next few days will be fraught politically. The Government is preparing what it believes is an intricate balancing act between renters' rights and developers' ambitions. The logic underpinning this is that enhancing tenants' rights can be delivered in tandem with less strict rent caps. Therefore, investors will get back to building more homes and ultimately the supply shortage can be eased. The backdrop to this move is record high rents and the growing feeling among many that the social contract has been broken. It all suggests that this will be a hard sell. Opposition parties already believe that renters are being thrown under the bus. It is all part of the long awaited redraw of the Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) where the annual rent hike is capped at 2%. In new buildings that cap will now be scrapped and instead rents will be linked to inflation. The proposal, which Minister for Housing James Browne will bring to Cabinet, will also allow landlords with existing properties to reset rents for new tenants to the market rate. After that they would be subject to the current 2% cap. In exchange tenants will get security of tenure for six years in a move that the Government believes will bring an end to no fault evictions. Questions are already being raised about just how secure current tenants are under these new changes. On the surface, at least they do not appear to be subject to significant change. However, Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin believes the proposals will put tens of thousands of tenants with pre-2022 tenancies at risk. That is because their landlords can evict them for no reason at the end of their six-year tenancy under the law as it stands. That means these landlords would have the right to reset rents to new market levels after these tenants' six-year tenancies come to an end. This is one of many pertinent questions about the changes that will inevitably lead to heated exchanges in the Dáil next Tuesday.
