Taoiseach meets with councillors and candidates to discuss priorities for Cork County

More ambition on housing, connecting communities through transport and broadband, delivering water infrastructure and backing small businesses are among the plans Fine Gael Councillors and local election candidates have to continue to develop Cork county over the next five years.

Today (Friday), An Taoiseach, Simon Harris met with Fine Gael Cork County Councillors and local election candidates in Fermoy Mart, to discuss their priorities for Cork county and their projections for the next local authority term, which is set to run up until 2029.

As Ireland’s largest county, Cork has some of the youngest towns and villages in Ireland, including Watergrasshill, Rathcormac and Carrigtwohill, where the average age of residents are aged 33 and under.

Fine Gael Group Leader of Cork County Council, Councillor John Paul O’Shea, said:

“Fine Gael has always recognised and valued the important role that local authorities have in delivering for our local communities. We’ve seen the evidence of this in the strides that the Fine Gael group on Cork County Council have made over the past five years.

“We’ve driven a more than a three-fold increase in new homes and more than 2,000 new homes were built in county Cork in 2023 alone.

“We’ve driven improvements in Cork’s regional and local road network with more than €473m since 2017, including €83.2m for this year.

“We’ve completed key water and wastewater projects in Mallow, Bandon, Boherbue, Millstreet, Skibbereen and Cork Lower Harbour, while works in Macroom and Castlemartyr are underway.

“Through the Local Enterprise Office network, we’ve helped thousands of businesses and entrepreneurs to thrive, crucially at times of significant stress, such as during the pandemic and flooding, while creating record levels of employment.

“And we have plans to build on this progress, cognisant of the fact that we have an expanding population, who need to live, work and enjoy life in their own communities, at each and every stage of their lives.

“We are grateful to An Taoiseach Simon Harris for taking the time to meet us here today in Fermoy. He shares our ambitions and has assured us that Fine Gael will continue to deliver for rural Ireland and for Cork County,” he concluded.