The news that Carrigaline has the lowest rate of commercial rental vacancies in Ireland for the third consecutive year may not have been celebrated with champagne and canapés in the Co Cork town, but it is a measure of success that many towns might well envy.
Property database GeoDirectory found that although the national commercial vacancy rate stood at 14.5 per cent, Carrigaline came in top – or rather bottom – of the list at a healthy 5.1 per cent for the third year in a row to beat Greystones, Co Wicklow, on 7.3 per cent.
But the commercial rental vacancy rating is just one measure that suggests that the once-small village of Carrigaline, founded by the Normans when they built a castle at Carrig Ui Laighin, is now among the fastest growing and most prosperous towns in Ireland.
A village of just a few hundred people in the 1960s, Carrigaline, located 14km south of Cork city, underwent its first real growth in the 1970s and there have been waves of expansion with new housing estates springing up with near constancy since about 1990.
The CSO found that between 1996 and 2002, Carrigaline’s population grew by 2,320 and that growth has continued with the 2022 census recording a population of 18,239 in Carrigaline, making it the largest town in Co Cork after Ballincollig’s incorporation into Cork city in 2019.
Carrigaline has gone from being a village to a prosperous town of 20,000 or so inhabitants. Photograph: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
Not only is Carrigaline the largest town in Co Cork, it is also the most prosperous with the CSO in 2016 reporting it as having the highest median income in Munster at €59,353. Although it didn’t top Munster in 2022, it still was recording a median income of €74,781.
Auctioneer Roy Dennehy, whose family business on Main Street will next year celebrate its 50th anniversary, believes that, with at least 100 new houses being built every year in Carrigaline since 2022, the population of the town is now well north of 20,000.
“There’s always been a good supply of housing in Carrigaline. Even in the worst of the slump from 2011 to 2014, there were houses being built and there’s been huge expansion in recent years. A three bedroom semi-D in the newest estate, Janeville, is about €484,000 at the moment.”
Asked about Carrigaline’s low level of commercial rental vacancy, Dennehy says: “Grocery is competitive to a degree with SuperValu, Dunnes, Lidl and Aldi, but our proximity to Cork and the shopping centres in Douglas and Mahon means retail here hasn’t expanded hugely – we have one men’s clothes shop, one woman’s clothes shop and one shoe shop.
Locals make as many as 8,000 car journeys a day in Carrigaline. Photograph: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
“The number of coffee shops has expanded here hugely even though we have fewer pubs than we used to, but much of the commercial life of the town now is service-based: physiotherapists, doctors, dentists, barbers, hairdressers, beauty salons, solicitors and auctioneers.”
Although Carrigaline is experiencing most of the challenges facing dormitory towns that undergo rapid growth such as pressure on crèches, schools and medical practices as well as demands for more gardaí, Dennehy’s observation on the town’s economy points to another issue.
Cork County Council, in its impressive Carrigaline Transport and Public Realm Enhancement Plan (TPREP) published in 2022, identified the glaring problem that anyone living or visiting Carrigaline will be well aware of: huge traffic volumes and congestion.
“There are limited employment opportunities within Carrigaline, thus requiring a significant majority of residents in Carrigaline to travel outside [generally by car] to employment centres in Cork city, Ringaskiddy and Little Island,” it said in the plan, which is a blueprint for development in the town until 2040.
“During pre-Covid times, this resulted in more than 5,000 cars leaving Carrigaline in the morning and returning in the evening, creating substantial demands on the existing transportation network.”
Cork South-Central Fianna Fáil TD Séamus McGrath acknowledges the challenge the town faces with so many residents working in Cork city, for the big pharma companies at Ringaskiddy or across Cork harbour in Little Island, or in IT companies at Cork Airport Business Park.
McGrath says construction work on the €456 million upgrade of the N28 from Cork to Ringaskiddy to the M28 motorway, which connects to the Cork road in Carrigaline at Shannonpark roundabout, is adding to delays.
Fianna Fáil TD Séamus McGrath hopes the completion of the N28 upgrade will ease traffic problems. Photograph: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
“Traffic is an issue 100 per cent and traditionally has been for Carrigaline,” he says. “The work on the M28, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2028, is causing additional congestion, but when it is completed it will be able to cater for greater traffic volumes to and from Carrigaline.”
Carrigaline was served between 1903 and 1932 by the Cork Blackrock and Passage Railway, which ran to Crosshaven, but there are no plans to reopen the line. Although some of it is already converted to a greenway, there are plans to convert all 26 kilometres to a greenway for active travel.
“We are not going to get light rail in the near future as the Luas isn’t coming out to Douglas or to Passage West or to Carrigaline, so in terms of public transport Bus Connects is the only show in town and there are plans to upgrade the frequency of service,” McGrath says.
He points also to council plans for a major park-and-ride to help reduce cars on the M28 with an area earmarked near the Shannonpark roundabout outside the town. although consideration is also being given to a site at Carr’s Hill, nearer Cork city, which could also serve Douglas.
“As well as that, the active travel is very strong here because when the greenway is completed it will bring you from Carrigaline, via Monkstown and Passage West, into the city and it will provide a link, too, to Ringaskiddy, which is a major employment base in the area.”
Cllr Jack White, Fine Gael member of Cork County Council, agrees with McGrath about the importance of buses. The current Bus Éireann service – which runs every 15 minutes – leaves much to be desired in terms of reliability as buses are often delayed at pinch points elsewhere on the route, he says.
Fine Gael Cllr Jack White says a decent road network for the town should have been put in place years ago. Photograph: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
“Carrigaline is served by the 220, which comes from Ovens all the way to Fountainstown. It’s a 44km route and less than 2 per cent of that is a dedicated bus lane, so very often buses are getting caught at pinch points on their way into the western part of the city and in the city itself,” he says.
White also points to another issue – one recognised by the council in its Carrigaline transport plan – that as well as the 5,000 daily car trips by people leaving Carrigaline daily for work, locals also make 3,000 journeys daily into town for school, sport and other community matters.
“The biggest challenge Carrigaline faces is a historic deficit in infrastructure planning that has led to a massive growth in housing estates at both the northern and southern ends of the without a decent road network within the town itself,” he says.
“That network should have been planned for 30 years ago, so what we have now is … a massive amount of traffic [is] being funnelled through a main street that hasn’t changed much in 100 years. We’ve been promised an outer relief road and we badly need it.”
Cork County Council and Bus Éireann were contacted for comment on plans for Carrigaline.