Tale of Ireland's second largest local authority told in numbers

Mon, 22 Apr, 2024 - 10:20

Sponsored

Numbers give a great sense of the scale of Co Cork, Ireland's largest county — and consequently the scale of Cork County Council's role in managing its many assets and delivering its many civic functions and services.

Cork County Council manages more than 200 Coastal Assets along a 1,200km coastline, including many islands.

Flood relief schemes

The following major flood relief schemes have been completed in Cork County since 2010:

Skibbereen
Douglas
Mallow
Fermoy
Bandon
Clonakilty

Cork County Council is managing the operation and maintenance of the following completed major flood relief schemes, on behalf of the OPW:

Mallow
Fermoy
Skibbereen
Bandon

Cork County Council is currently progressing the following major flood relief schemes, on behalf of the OPW:

Midleton
Bantry
Ballinhassig
Ballymakeera

Internet services

Cork County Council established the first Local Authority service design team in Ireland in 2016.

115 online services available
59,882 registered online public accounts
39,806 online cases logged in 2023

2023: A year in numbers

The following is a list of statistics for 2023

Number of planning applications per annum: 3,398
Decision to Grant: 2,228
Decision to refuse: 220
Number of pre planning meetings 1,023
Number of new houses granted permission. Cannot be ascertained
Number of heritage publications: 1 — 'Natural Heritage of County Cork' (2023).
Any other significant statistics: See italics above.

Since April 2022, with the adoption of the new CDP, Cork County Council has granted permission for 7,970 houses (7,020 houses within development boundaries and 950 individual rural houses).

In 2022 and 2023, Cork County Council granted consent for 7,383 residential units in total in Cork County. This meets the Council's housing delivery targets for the two years.

A new Affordable Housing Purchase Scheme launched by Cork County Council features attractive homes at Cluain Ard in Cobh.

Heritage publications since 2013

Heritage Bridges of County Cork (2013)
Heritage Houses of County Cork (2014)
Heritage Churches of County Cork (2015)
Heritage Centenary Sites of Rebel County Cork (2016)
Heritage Castles of County Cork (2017)
Europe and the County of Cork: A Heritage Perspective (2018)
Industrial Heritage of County Cork (2019)
Archaeological Heritage of County Cork (2020)
Heritage Artefacts of County Cork (2021)
Heritage Towns and Villages of County Cork (2022)
Natural Heritage of County Cork (2023)

There are 600 bridges on the Regional Road network and approximately 3000 on the local road network. One other interesting fact is the amount of out of hours emergency calls received by the Roads Directorate, an average of 963 out of hours calls are received per annum.

Graveyards: 261 Graveyards maintained by Cork County Council (all Divisions)

Swimming Pools: 3 public swimming pools operated by Cork Co Co Fermoy, Mallow and Dunmanway (users per week for Fermoy and Mallow is approx. 5,000 in total)

Skibbereen Heritage Centre

Skibbereen Heritage Centre had a very successful year in 2023 with visitor numbers at 14,800 and over 3,250 genealogy queries handled via email and in-person consultations.

Skibbereen Heritage Centre has recently uploaded c. 23,000 previously unavailable Cork County Council burial register records to its online database. This brings the total number of burial records now available on this site to over 82,700, all of which are available to access free of charge from anywhere in the world.

Kinsale Museum

In 2023, Kinsale Museum, in its first full year reopened, welcomed just under 7.5k visitors into the museum. The museum remained open throughout the winter months with some work carried out to improve displays. Further improvements are currently being undertaken.

Michael Collins House Museum

In 2023, Michael Collins House welcomed over 20,000 visitors to the museum.

Overall role of Cork County Council as a Port Authority

Over 200 piers and harbours under its jurisdiction.
2 commercial (shipping) harbours (Youghal and Kinsale).
4 main fishing harbours; Ballycotton, Kinsale, Union Hall and Baltimore
CCC services 72 visitor moorings for visiting yachts in the region (Youghal, Ballycotton, Kinsale, Glandore, Heir Island).
CCC provides essential port service to passenger vessels serving islands (Baltimore, Cunnamore, Schull, Colla Pier, Glengarriff, Beal lough, etc…)
CCC supports and facilitates numerous local and international maritime events (Regattas, yacht and dinghy racing, open water swimming even, etc.) Including the international Figaro race in 2023 of which the first leg (Caen to Kinsale) was won by Irish Skipper Tom Dolan.