{"id":205937,"date":"2025-12-23T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T00:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205937\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T00:01:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T00:01:14","slug":"taoiseach-cork-events-centre-sod-turning-shouldnt-have-happened-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205937\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach: Cork Events Centre sod turning shouldn’t have happened in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘I take no responsibility for what happened in 2016’<\/p>\n

14:12, 22 Dec 2025Updated 14:21, 22 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"CrewsCrews onsite at the Events Centre – but no, it wasn’t BAM(Image: CorkBeo)<\/p>\n

Two months shy of the 10th anniversary of the infamous sod turning at Cork’s non-Event’s Centre<\/a>, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> says it should never have happened when it did, saying he was “firmly asconced to the position at the time.”<\/p>\n

The Fianna F\u00e1il leader told CorkBeo: “I take no responsibility for what happened in 2016.<\/p>\n

“That was wrong, they shouldn’t have done the sod turning like that because there hadn’t been any real development of that.”<\/p>\n

The Cork TD was unable to provide a timeline on when Leesiders can expect tangible progress on the site, claiming the developers will “hopefully” provide one next year.<\/p>\n

He attributed much of the delays to BAM, the project’s developers, repatedly looking for more state investment – adding other developers have since said they would have been interested in the project had they known so much funding would be provided.<\/p>\n

\"Taoiseach(Image: \u00a9 2025 PA Media, All Rights Reserved)<\/p>\n

“It’s different project now to the one that started in 2016 in terms of the balance of the money.”<\/p>\n

“I do understand the frustration and the annoyance because when you mention to people the Events Centre they throw their eyes up to heaven, I get that.”<\/p>\n

When asked if the project speaks to a broader issue of Cork city being neglected at a state level, the Taoiseach claimed this was a “crazy assessment to make,” highlighting projects such as the development of the docklands and Grand Parade as well as investment in Cork’s research facilities.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said it was “unfair” to compare the project to the long awaited Cork Luas, claiming that project was only announced last year.<\/p>\n

“There’s no one been waiting for the Cork light rail for 10 years.”<\/p>\n

Proposed route from Ballincollig to Mahon(Image: Cork Luas)<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to Thursday’s festivities, the Taoiseach told CorkBeo he will be spending Christmas<\/a> Day at home in Ballinlough and in Nemo Rangers catching up with club members over one or two pints – a tradition he used to enjoy with his father when he was younger.<\/p>\n

“Really it’s to meet people coming back from overseas, meeting families, it’s more relaxed and not around the frenzy and high temper of matches<\/p>\n

“Hopefully then we’ll do a long puck. I enjoy Christmas Day, family will come over, my brothers will come over and we’ll chat about the ‘what might have beens.’<\/p>\n

“We’re a sporting mad family so there’ll be rows about who should have won the All Ireland, why Nemo didn’t win the county and all that type of stuff.<\/p>\n

With a busy Christmas Day on the cards, he’s pushing out his ice cold sea swim to New Year’s Day in Courtmacsherry where he’ll ring in 2026.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been doing it for about 30 years and I keep saying every year ‘why have I landed myself in this?’ but it’s for the RNLI and we do it on the beach or it could be Broadstrand.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lovely event because you feel great afterwards.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I take no responsibility for what happened in 2016’ 14:12, 22 Dec 2025Updated 14:21, 22 Dec 2025 Crews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9484,72,14641,61,60,86039,1843,1650],"class_list":{"0":"post-205937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-cork-city","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-local-democracy-reporting","14":"tag-micheal-martin","15":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}