The lack of progress on the Events Centre is indicative of the Government\u2019s attitude towards Cork, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice.<\/p>\n
Deputy Rice, who represents Cork South-Central, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday marks 10 years since the sod was turned on the Cork Event Centre project – this sad anniversary can\u2019t go unacknowledged, so together with colleagues from the Social Democrats, I unveiled a commemorative plaque.<\/p>\n
\u201cWay back in February 2016, in the dying days of the general election campaign, then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, flanked by other Fine Gael and Labour Party Ministers, turned the sod on the project. It was a nice photo op but nothing more.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, the press release from the developer, BAM, said that a 6,000-capacity multi-purpose venue would be built within two years – a decade on, the only thing the people of Cork have been left with is a large derelict site in the city centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is nothing more than an eyesore with a new bridge to nowhere – outrageously, the latest information available shows that \u20ac2.2 million has been spent on the process so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis must surely now be one of the most expensive vacant sites \u2014 and one of the biggest white elephants \u2014 in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn event centre in Cork has the potential to attract big gigs and shows that are currently skipping Cork. It also gives Cork the potential to host big conferences, trade shows and other large scale community events.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of this will have a positive knock-on effect on the local economy with more people staying in our hotel, eating in our restaurants and drinking in our pubs – that is why we want to see the Event Centre built without delay.”<\/p>\n
February 12th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The lack of progress on the Events Centre is indicative of the Government\u2019s attitude towards Cork, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice. Deputy Rice, who represents Cork South-Central, said: \u201cToday marks 10 years since the sod was turned on the Cork Event Centre project – this sad anniversary can\u2019t go unacknowledged, so together with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[782,642,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cork","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n