This weekend the Social Democrats will hold our party conference in Cork, which is a city starved of Government investment. The people of Cork have been long promised light rail but not a single penny has been provided under the new transport plan. However, that is not the only broken promise. We have no BusConnects; no new dental school; no business school; no safe injection facility; no new homeless hub; and no new library. The most notorious example is the failure to build the Cork events centre. Ten years ago, in the dying days of a general election campaign, the Tánaiste’s former party leader and 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. 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. It is nothing more than an eyesore with a new bridge to nowhere. Next week marks a decade since the sod was turned. To mark the tenth anniversary, I will host an event where the events centre should be. I would love to see the Tánaiste there and I would love to hear what he has to say to the people of Cork about the Government’s failure to deliver on these key infrastructure projects for our city.

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