June 2025
Hi, there! — Welcome to the thirty-ninth 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 Cork’s fossil fuel strategy, maintaining cycle infrastructure, the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign, and supporting the Raise the Roof rally on Saturday — as well as questions on issues faced by residents near the city centre and “misconnections” causing pollution of the Glen River.
I’ve also included updates on eight new railway stations planned for the Cork commuter rail network, the Raise the Roof demonstration, and a survey of littering in the city.
As ever, feel welcome to keep in touch with me by email at email@oliver.ie. I’d love to hear from you, even to share your thoughts on this newsletter.
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 if there is a single staff member within an appropriate Directorate who can act as a focal point for issues relating to urban core residential areas like St Luke’s, South Parish and Blackpool? These areas are part of the historic urban fabric but have distinct qualities and needs within the city?”
I will also ask the following question at the next meeting of the North East ward Local Area Committee:
“To ask the Chief Executive the status of water services ‘misconnections’ identified as affecting the water quality of the Glen River (described in a presentation to the most recent meeting of the Environment, Water and Amenities SPC); and what steps can be taken to remediate ‘misconnections’ of this kind?”
Motions
“That, as a Mission City to be climate neutral by 2030, Cork City Council is opposed to the development of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals, as new fossil fuel infrastructure, and will work to ensure no LNG terminals are developed in the Cork region; and shall focus its support on the development of large-scale renewable infrastructure for energy security instead.”
“That, as part of road lining maintenance contracts, Cork City Council will include the addition of a cycle symbol to the reservoir of existing Advance Stop Lines, ensure the depth of the reservoir is a minimum of 4m, and that the surface is red; consideration also to add an early start in the signal stage and cycle detection to existing junctions where an Advance Stop Line is present.”
“That, in keeping with its policy of support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to pressure Israel to withdraw from its illegal occupation of Palestine and to ensure full equality for its Arab-Palestinian citizens, Cork City Council will advise community organisations in receiving ward funds to be mindful of this policy in their use of funds received from Cork City Council; and that organisations will be advised of this in written communications from Cork City Council when receiving ward funds.”
“That Cork City Council recognises the impacts of the housing and homelessness emergency on workers, families and communities in Cork and endorses the Raise the Roof rally in Cork on 21st June at 2pm gathering at the National Monument on Grand Parade.” (Joint motion with other councillors.)
Spoken contributions
At this month’s meeting of Cork City Council, I made spoken contributions on:
Issues facing residents in historic areas near the city centre
Waste collection regulations for residents with no off-street storage
Street performance bye-laws and creativity in the city centre
You can watch back my previous contributions in the chamber on YouTube and share these with the link oliver.ie/videos.
What’s happening?
New rail stations opening
This week, Irish Rail opened a public consultation on eight new railway stations. Four of these are on the northside of the city:
Blackpool
Blarney
Dunkettle
Tivoli
The stations at Blarney and Dunkettle will also include Park & Ride facilities for up to 600 vehicles each.
The announcement this week, follows four years of behind-the-scenes works all gearing towards this moment. It’s the kind of investment we need to begin freeing up the city centre from single-occupancy vehicles.
For people commuting to the city, the average number of passengers in a car, including the driver, is just 1.4 people. The equivalent number for a bus or train arriving at Kent Station is 26 passengers on every bus and 49 passengers on every train.
When people talk about sustainable transport that includes the level of congestion in the city. It’s just not sustainable to think that more and more single-occupancy vehicles can arrive into the city centre. There just isn’t the space for them.
Passenger numbers for rail in Cork have grown 60% already since 2019. Irish Rail forecast demand for up to 3,600 passengers arriving at Kent Station every hour from Cobh/Middleton and 2,350 from Mallow.
The picture is forming too about is why it’s so important that the Cork Luas connects directly with Kent Station. This is the beginning of a truly integrated mass transit system for the city and the metropolitan area. High-frequency commuter rail in the metropolitan area, connecting with high-frequency light rail across the city, will be the backbone of that system.
The consultation is open now until Wednesday, 23 July, with all of the relevant documents available to read online. There will also be information days at Kent Station, Blackpool Shopping Centre and Blarney GAA Club.
Raise the Roof rally
This month, I’ve been involved in the organising of a union-led and cross-party rally for Saturday, 21 June to demand drastic changes on the delivery of housing.
The demonstration is under the banner of the Raise the Roof campaign, which has five common principles:
Commit to secure, affordable homes for all.
Tackle high rents and unfair evictions for tenants.
Deliver public housing and cost rental through the state and local authorities.
End tax breaks for investor funds and tackle vacant homes.
Create a right to housing.
The rally on Saturday will meet at 2:00pm at the National Monument on Grand Parade.
Speakers will include representatives from across unions and political parties, as well as musicians. The march will travel from there along a short route through the city centre.
If you can, I think it’s absolutely vital that you show out and demonstrate your support for those struggling to find a home. It follows a demonstration in Dublin on Tuesday under the same banner.
Housing is now clearly in an emergency situation. I am struck by how people from across all demographics are impacted by it, renters, parents, workers, retired people and students.
People can’t wait while a new minister goes over old ground, hoping things will be different for him. Be it defunding the tenant-in-situ scheme or resurrecting zombie planning permissions, this government is going backwards in actually delivering housing.
I hope you’ll be able to join us and make your voice heard among those demanding change and supporting the Raise the Roof campaign.
Litter blackspots
This month also saw the release of the regular Irish Business Against Litter survey. These surveys are taken at locations across the city. They are used to compare areas of Cork to European norms and a national league table.
It’s very positive to see the city centre ranked cleaner than European norms.
Unfortunately, the northside is again ranked low, which gives a poor impression of the area. However, the city centre locations sampled actually include northside areas like Bridge Street, MacCurtain Street, Lower Glanmire Road and Kent Station.
The areas referred to as “northside” are in fact specific locations. Mahon is included on the southside, but it’s called “Mahon” not “southside”. I think more precise language like that would help clarify the locations being referred to, which in turn will help focus attention on blackspots.
In fact, the survey identified those blackspots and these should be used now for a targeted response.
All of the areas that scored worst, for example, were specific areas of waste ground or vacant properties that attracted dumping. In these cases, I think there can be a plan of action put into effect to address the cause.
In the news…
Cork city councillor calls for renaming of Bishop Lucey Park as “Páirc na mBan”
Green party councillor, Oliver Moran, said that the refurbishment works was the perfect time to rename the park.
Echo, Wednesday, 11 June
Cork group using cutting-edge VR technology to bring Traveller culture to life in 360 degrees
Green Party councillor, Oliver Moran, is the first elected representative to use the VR experience and he said he was “blown away” with how the project used VR.
Irish Independent, Friday, 30 May
Vandals torching Cork City’s “Riviera” with “reckless” wildfires, in major threat to local homes
Green Party councillor, Oliver Moran, has proposed that Cork City Council would conduct an awareness campaign on the risks of gorse fires.
Echo, Saturday, 24 May
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!
