January 2026
Hi, there! — Welcome to the forty-seventh edition of my monthly newsletter to keep you up to date on my work for Cork City North East.
This month, we have motions on the gritting of walking routes during icy weather, flexibility for community groups accessing the Community Climate Action Fund, supporting local businesses in the city centre, and facilitating local communities in the EV Charging Strategy — as well as questions on kissing gates and drinking water fountains in the Glen River Park.
I’ve also included updates on the public consultation happening on 30km/h zones, CCTV for areas affected by illegal dumping, and funding for active travel schemes in the ward.
As ever, feel welcome to get in touch by email any time at email@oliver.ie — with your thoughts or comments on this newsletter, or if there are any local issues I should know about.
Please remember too to share this newsletter with your friends and neighbours in the ward.
Many thanks!
Oliver
p.s. You can use this link to easily read and share all my monthly newsletters ... oliver.ie/newsletter
Motions and notions
Each councillor can submit up to four motions each month to Cork City Council and ask two formal questions of the Chief Executive. One of these questions is asked at the Local Area Committee and must be about local operational matters.
Before the deadline each month, I meet with my local group, the Cork City North Greens, and we agree motions and questions for the month ahead. We call this our “motions and notions” meeting :-)
If you have ideas or suggestions for a motion, or have a question you want asked, just let me know!
Or join the Cork City North Greens ... my.greenparty.ie.
Questions
“To ask the Chief Executive for progress on the replacement of ‘kissing gates’ at the entrances to the Glen River Park (see report to motion 21/390); and if this is dependent upon progress of the Mayfield to Glen walking and cycling scheme?”
I will also ask the following question at the next meeting of the North East ward Local Area Committee:
“To ask the Chief Executive if there is an update on the installation of a drinking water fountain at the Glen River Park?”
Motions
“That Cork City Council will identify key commuter pedestrian routes, such as Kent Station to the city centre, and significant arterial commuter pedestrian routes; and ensure that these are added to gritting routes in icy conditions.”
“That the Chief Executive will write to the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment seeking more flexibility for community organisations in the application of the Community Climate Action Fund; and that this correspondence will set out practical examples of barriers faced by community organisations in meeting the conditions of the fund.”
“Recognising the impact of ‘fast-fashion’ and related business models on the environment, and the importance of supporting local businesses identified in the city centre strategy — that it shall be an objective of Cork City Council that 33% of commercial units on Patrick’s Street will be occupied by local and slow- or circular-economy businesses; and that this policy shall be incorporated into the next Cork City Development Plan.”
“That Cork City Council will include practical and policy supports for residential EV charging co-operatives and shared charging technologies in the Cork City Council EV Charging Strategy, as an alternative to commercial public charging for city residents without off-street parking.”
Spoken contributions
At this month’s meeting of Cork City Council, I made spoken contributions on:
You can watch back my previous contributions in the chamber on YouTube and share these with the link oliver.ie/videos.
What’s happening?
Consultation on 30km/h zones
Cork City Council is holding a public consultation this month on introducing 30km/h zones on:
All housing estate roads
Residential streets
Roads adjacent to schools
Other roads where there is “significant and regular interaction” between pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists
Other areas are planned to remain 50km/h zones, or even go higher.
The consultation now will be very important. In particular, the guidelines talk about residential areas or areas with significant pedestrian interaction. These are assumed to be 30km/h under the new guidelines, but for areas near the city centre, that aren’t housing estates but are still residential, like Summer Hill or Lower Glanmire Road, it’s unclear what way that will fall.
I’ve asked that we will include residential areas like these, where homes face out onto the road. If it’s taken as a given housing estates should be 30km/h then why would it not include other types of residential areas?
Unfortunately, we are in a sort of clash of worlds. One world that looks out of a windscreen and sees a road. Another that looks out of their front-room and sees a street.
When residents of Ballyhooly Road did a poster campaign asking motorists to slow down, I was struck, for example, by comments on Facebook to the effect that, “It’s a road, they shouldn’t expect their kids to be safe around it.”
So, the residents from these areas need to make that point and make it loudly. That areas like yours are where you and your family live first, and where someone else drives through second.
The public consultation is open now until Friday, 13 February, 2026, and you can make your views known at consult.corkcity.ie.
CCTV for the Glen River Park
Next month, Cork City Council plan to install CCTV at the Glen River Park to identify people engaging in illegal dumping.
This follows a proposal I put forward after the success of cameras in other parts of the ward, including Orchard Court in Blackpool. The city is also planning to continue CCTV monitoring of the Ballyvolane Road, where CCTV was also previously installed for this reason.
Unfortunately, there’s a particular section of the Glen River Park that is a known site for people engaging in fly-tipping. It’s being done on a significant scale and the environmental damage is nearly impossible to undo. Once the rubbish is up-ended, it falls into a thick forest and river area. It’s simply incredible that people think that they can get away with it.
It’s always being done by people arriving in vehicles, so the purpose of CCTV will be to identify those vehicles and prosecute the people involved.
This is only possible now after the law was changed by my colleagues in the last term of government. We’ve had success at previous sites in Orchard Court and on Spring Lane. Now, we want to turn attention to this site also so these people know they have nowhere to hide.
However, it’s very important for everyday residents to know where their rubbish is being taken when they hire someone to do work for them or take things away. If they are not a registered waste contractor, it’s inevitably somewhere like this. Most people are horrified at dumping like we see at the park, but it all comes from somewhere, and unfortunately that ‘somewhere’ can be their home, even without their knowing it.
A public consultation on CCTV at Ballyvolane Road and Glen River Park is open until 30 January, 2026. Submissions can be made in writing to the Environment Department, City Hall or by email to waste_enforcement@corkcity.ie.
Active travel funding
This month, the National Transport Authority (NTA) announced funding for Cork City Coucil active travel schemes in the year ahead.
The NTA is the “funding authority” for schemes like these, which are planned and constructed by Cork City Council, but paid for by the NTA. That means this time of year, when the funding for the year ahead is announced, is a red letter day for infrastructure in the city.
The big ticket item I was keeping an eye out for in this allocation was the city-centre to Glanmire scheme. It was approved by Cork City Council in 2024 and prioritised as one of 35 national ‘Pathfinder’ projects by Eamon Ryan when he was Minister for Transport.
The question was if this government would continue that commitment to it, or pull the plug. They’ve pulled the plug. Just €8,000 has been allocated to a €15,000,000 project. That’s not even enough to cover the existing bills. So, it’s shelved.
That would be a genuinely transformative scheme, connecting all of the investment in Glanmire, Glounthaune and Little Island into the city.
However, about 40% of funding citywide still continues to be for projects in the North East ward, with more than €5m being spent in Glanmire and more than €7m in Ballyvolane of out €14m in the ward in total.
That reflects in particular the focus on housing in the Ballyvolane area and making sure the transport infrastructure is there for that. It also reflects a commitment by councillors and residents in the area to active travel investment.
Nevertheless, we risk creating islands of areas with high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure unless projects like Glanmire to the city centre are put back on track.
In the news…
Greens 15 times more likely to propose topics for discussion at Cork City Council
The Green Party had the highest proportion of questions per councillor in 2025 — and were 15 times more likely than a Fianna Fáil councillor to table a motion.
Echo, Saturday, 17 January
Fears in Cork that casinos will start to ‘pop up’ everywhere after planning appeal decision
Green Party councillor, Oliver Moran, criticised An Coimisiún Pleanála, “In the middle of a housing crisis, why is a national planning authority looking at things like this?”
Irish Independent, Saturday, 17 January
Priority grit routes in freezing weather ‘should be reviewed’, Cork councillor urges
Green Party councillor, Oliver Moran, has proposed identifying “key commuter pedestrian routes, such as Kent Station to the city centre”.
CorkBeo, Monday, 12 January
Keep in touch
Thanks for reading! Please feel welcome to share this newsletter and invite other people you know to subscribe. If you can, please consider making a donation to my political activities in the ward.
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Have a great month!
