Economy of Cork

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The Elysian in Cork City, the third tallest building in the Republic of Ireland and tallest in Cork. Elysian tower Cork.JPG
The Elysian in Cork City, the third tallest building in the Republic of Ireland and tallest in Cork.

The second largest city in Ireland, Cork, has an economy focused on the city centre, which as of 2011, supported employment for 24,092 people. [1] According to 2006 figures, the top five employers in the area were public sector organisations, and included Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, Collins Barracks, Cork City Council and Cork Institute of Technology. Apple Inc. was the sixth largest employer, followed by Supervalu / Centra Distribution Ltd, Mercy University Hospital, Bon Secours Hospital and Boston Scientific. [1]

Contents

Industry and workforce

Most of the industry in Cork is concentrated around the Greater Cork area, taking in Cork city and its hinterland. The immediate Cork city area has a population of almost 209,000 including the suburbs. [2] Around 42,000 workers travel into the city and suburbs to work every day. [3] The majority of those commuters come from Cork County (91%), Waterford City and County, and Kerry (2%). [3] Some of the companies within this area include Pfizer (Pharmaceutical), GlaxoSmithKline (Pharmaceutical), Johnson & Johnson (Pharmaceutical), EMC (Data Storage), Apple Inc. (European HQ), Avery Dennison (Financial Shared Services), Siemens Group (Third party multi-lingual tech support) and the Marriott Group (Shared Services and Customer Service Contact Centre), Centocor (Biopharmaceutical Manufacture), McAfee (Security Software, EU Operations Centre), VMware (Enterprise Software and International Support/Shared Services Centre), Clearstream and Amazon.com (Customer Services – On line Retail Activities).

There are two key third-level institutions in the city, Munster Technological University (MTU) and University College Cork (UCC), which are the sixth and third largest employers in the city respectively [1] - the latter employing approximately 2,800 people. [4]

Information Technology and pharmaceuticals

Cork County Hall CorkCountyHall2017.jpg
Cork County Hall

Information Technology multinationals such as Apple, Amazon, EMC, IBM, McAfee Ireland Limited, SolarWinds, Siemens and VMware INC have a presence in the city. As of 2017, there are about 140 multinationals operating out of Cork, which employ almost 32,000 people. [5]

The area around Cork is home to a number of pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical companies, with a number of pharmaceutical companies located in Little Island and Ringaskiddy.

Retail

Mahon Point Shopping Centre is County Cork's largest shopping center, having opened in 2005. Infrastructural investments in the Mahon area included the extension of the N40 dual carriageway via a €137 million tunnel, the Jack Lynch Tunnel, which opened in 1999. Construction began on the shopping centre in 2000, and opened in 2005. Other larger retail centres in the city's suburbs include Wilton Shopping Centre, Blackpool Shopping Centre, and two centres in Douglas.

Offices and business parks

Larger office buildings in the city include Half Moon Street, Penrose Dock and One Albert Quay in the city centre, with Linn Dubh and The Atrium in Blackpool, and City Gate Park in Mahon.

The larger IDA business parks in Cork City and surroundings include Little Island Business Park and Cork Airport Business Park. Other smaller parks include Cork Business and Technology Park, Kilbarry Business and Technology Park, Carrigtwohill Business and Technology Park and Ringaskiddy Business Park.

Recent city centre office developments have included One Albert Quay, consisting of 175,000 sq ft of office space over seven levels on Albert Quay. Opened in March 2016, it is home to Johnson Controls, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Investec, [6] and described by its developer as "Ireland's smartest building". [7] In the city centre, a 46,000 sq ft office development was completed in January 2019 on the South Mall, and has KPMG and Forcepoint as tenants. [8]

Planned developments

As of December 2019, several developments were underway within the city, with over 1,000,000 square foot of offices reportedly under construction or in the planning stages. [9] This included the proposed €150 million development of accommodation, offices, retail and an event centre at the old Beamish and Crawford brewery site. [10] [11] While a "sod-turning" event was held on the site in 2016, [12] as of 2018, construction had commenced only in certain areas of the development, [13] with construction of the event centre delayed. [14]

As of 2020, ongoing developments in the city included a €90 million office scheme at "Navigation Square" on Albert Quay, [15] [16] and a €400 million office, hotel, retail and residential development at Horgans Quay and Cork Kent railway station. [17] [9]

Planned developments outside the city include a proposed data centre in Little Island, [18] [19] and several projects around Cork Harbour. [20] The latter included a €40m redevelopment of Spike Island as a tourist attraction, with a further €40m to clean up the former Irish Steel/Irish Ispat site on Haulbowline Island. [21]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Cork</span> County in Ireland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crosshaven</span> Village in Cork Harbour, Ireland

Crosshaven is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is located in lower Cork Harbour at the mouth of the River Owenabue, across from Currabinny Wood. Originally a fishing village, from the 19th century, the economy of the area became more reliant on a growing tourism industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University College Cork</span> Constituent university of the National University of Ireland

University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballincollig</span> Town in Cork city, Ireland

Ballincollig is a suburban town within the administrative area of Cork city in Ireland. It is located on the western side of Cork city, beside the River Lee on the R608 regional road. In 2016 it was the largest town in County Cork, at which time the Ballincollig Electoral Division had a population of 18,621 people. It is located beyond the green belt from the suburbs of Bishopstown and Wilton. Historically home to the Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills which is now a Regional Park, the town has seen much growth in recent years as a satellite of Cork City. Ballincollig is within the Cork North-West Dáil constituency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ringaskiddy</span> Port village in County Cork, Ireland

Ringaskiddy is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is located on the western side of Cork Harbour, south of Cobh, and is 15 kilometres (9 mi) from Cork city, to which it is connected by the N28 road. The village is a port with passenger ferry, with two bi-weekly sailings to Roscoff in France. A ferry service to Swansea in Wales closed in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cork Harbour</span> Harbour in Ireland

Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area". Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka and Poole Harbour in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrigtwohill</span> Town in County Cork, Ireland

Carrigtwohill, officially Carrigtohill, is a town in County Cork, Ireland with a population of 5,080 (2016). It is 12 kilometres east of Cork city. It is connected to Cork Suburban Rail and is bypassed by the N25 road. Carrigtwohill is one of the fastest-growing towns in the region, and a hub for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Carrigtwohill is part of the Cork East Dáil constituency.

In the Republic of Ireland, the retail sector provides one of the largest sources of employment in the economy, representing over 12% of the workforce. As of 2017, approximately 40,000 wholesale and retail businesses employed almost 280,000 people in Ireland, with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment reporting that 90% of these businesses were Irish-owned.

Mahon is an area to the south-eastern side of Cork, Ireland. Mahon gets its name from Lough Mahon, a wide stretch of the upper section of Cork Harbour. It was once a semi-rural peninsula, but from the late 20th century was subject to residential development, and has a number of housing estates and developments. The area was generally known as the Ring of Mahon, and is the site of Ringmahon House. Mahon is within the Cork South-Central Dáil constituency.

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Metropolitan Cork is a semi-official term which refers to the city of Cork, Ireland, its suburbs, the rural hinterland that surrounds it, and a number of the towns and villages in that hinterland. Some of the latter towns and villages are within the administrative area of County Cork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Patrick's Street</span> One of the main streets of Cork, Ireland

St Patrick's Street is the main shopping street of the city of Cork in the south of Ireland. The street was subject to redevelopment in 2004, and has since won two awards as Ireland's best shopping street. St Patrick's Street is colloquially known to most locals as simply 'Patrick's Street', with the 'St' honorific dropped, in accordance with the pattern applied to many locations named after saints. It is also referred to colloquially by some locals as "Pana", with the first 'a' being elongated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Island, Cork</span> Civil parish near Cork city, Ireland

Little Island, County Cork, is a civil parish and mainly industrial area to the east of Cork city in Ireland. It is no longer an island since the northern channel separating it from the mainland has filled over. To the west and south is Lough Mahon, part of Cork Harbour; across a channel to the east is Fota Island. Little Island is within the Dáil constituency of Cork North-Central.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cork Albert Quay railway station</span> Railway station in County Cork, Ireland

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Cork City Employment & Land Use Survey 2011 (PDF) (Report). Cork City Council. March 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 December 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  2. "Census 2016 Sapmap Area: Settlements Cork City And Suburbs". Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
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  12. "Event centre build may not start until 2023". irishexaminer.com. Irish Examiner. 13 February 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  13. "Construction begins on former brewery's Counting House". eveningecho.ie. Evening Echo. 22 October 2018.
  14. "Cork event centre worth €80m 'will still happen', Coveney says". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 22 August 2018.
  15. "Work to begin on Cork's largest office development this summer". Evening Echo. 29 March 2017.
  16. "Extra floor approved for Navigation Square in the Cork Docklands". Irish Examiner. 24 September 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  17. "Docklands plan on track". Evening Echo. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
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  19. "T5 Data Centers is coming to Europe with a campus in Ireland". DataCentre Dynamics. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  20. "Cork harbour to get 'Sydney of Europe' makeover". Independent News & Media. 28 February 2017.
  21. "Cork City Developments: Eight dynamic projects giving the city a facelift". Irish Examiner. 6 April 2015.