Jump to content

Economy of Cork

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Elysian in Cork City, the third tallest building in the Republic of Ireland and tallest in Cork.

The second largest city in Ireland, Cork, has an economy focused on the city centre and its harbour. As of 2022, over 103,000 people were working in the city, with the majority in full-time employment.[1] In a 2011 employment survey, the largest employers in the area included several public sector organisations, including Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, Cork City Council, Cork Institute of Technology and Collins Barracks. Apple Inc. was the largest private sector employer, followed by Boston Scientific, Bon Secours Hospital, Supervalu / Centra Distribution Ltd and Mercy University Hospital.[2] As of 2026, the Cork area was home to approximately 11 percent of Ireland's population, while contributing up to 19 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).[3]

Industry and workforce

[edit]

Most of the industry in Cork is concentrated around the Greater Cork area, taking in Cork city and its hinterland. The Cork city area, including its suburbs, had a population of over 224,000 as of the 2022 census.[4] As of 2016, approximately 42,000 workers travel into the city and suburbs to work every day.[5] The majority of those commuters come from Cork County (91%), Waterford City and County, and Kerry (2%).[5] By the 2022 census, of the 113,067 people working in the city and suburbs, 60% were residents and a further 45,567 daytime workers commuted into the area.[6]

Some of the companies within this area include Pfizer (pharmaceutical), Stryker (medical technology), Apple Inc. (European HQ) and Boston Scientific (biotechnology).[7] Other employers include EMC (data storage),[4] Bord Gáis (energy),[2] Amazon (customer services for online retail),[8] GlaxoSmithKline (pharmaceutical), Johnson & Johnson (pharmaceutical), Siemens Group (third party multi-lingual tech support), the Marriott Group (shared services and customer service contact centre), McAfee (security software) and VMware (enterprise software).[citation needed]

There are two key third-level institutions in the city, Munster Technological University (MTU) and University College Cork (UCC), which (as of 2011) were the sixth and third largest employers in the city respectively[2] - the latter employing approximately 2,800 people.[9]

Information Technology and pharmaceuticals

[edit]
Cork County Hall

Information Technology multinationals such as Apple, Amazon, EMC, IBM, McAfee Ireland Limited, SolarWinds, Siemens and VMware INC have a presence in the city. As of 2020, there were over 190 multinationals operating in Cork, employing approximately 43,000 people in the area.[10] Over 6,000 people were based at Apple's Hollyhill campus in 2020.[11]

The area around Cork is also home to a number of pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical companies, with a number of pharmaceutical companies located in Little Island and Ringaskiddy. Of ten new drug-substance plants established in Ireland between 1975 and 1986, six were established in the Cork area.[4]

Retail

[edit]

Mahon Point Shopping Centre, opened in 2005, is Cork's largest shopping center. Other larger retail centres in the city's suburbs include Wilton Shopping Centre, Blackpool Shopping Centre, and two centres in Douglas.[12] Within the city centre, retail is centred on the St Patrick's Street and Oliver Plunkett Street areas. At the end of 2024, retail vacancy was reportedly 17% on St Patrick's Street and 9% on Oliver Plunkett Street, down from 20% and 10% respectively from 2023.[13]

Offices and business parks

[edit]
Office buildings at Penrose Dock, Cork

Larger office buildings in the city include Half Moon Street, Penrose Dock and One Albert Quay in the city centre, with Linn Dubh and The Atrium in Blackpool, and City Gate Park in Mahon.

The larger IDA business parks in Cork City and surroundings include Little Island Business Park and Cork Airport Business Park. Other smaller parks include Cork Business and Technology Park, Kilbarry Business and Technology Park, Carrigtwohill Business and Technology Park and Ringaskiddy Business Park.

Recent city centre office developments have included One Albert Quay, consisting of 175,000 sq ft of office space over seven levels on Albert Quay. Opened in March 2016, it is home to Johnson Controls, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Investec,[14] and described by its developer as "Ireland's smartest building".[15] In the city centre, a 46,000 sq ft office development was completed in January 2019 on the South Mall, and has KPMG and Forcepoint as tenants.[16]

Planned developments

[edit]

As of December 2019, several developments were underway within the city, with over 1,000,000 square foot of offices reportedly under construction or in the planning stages.[17] This included the proposed €150 million development of accommodation, offices, retail and an event centre at the old Beamish and Crawford brewery site.[18][19] While a "sod-turning" event was held on the site in 2016,[20] construction had commenced only in certain areas of the development by 2018,[21][22] and the events centre was not still not realised as of 2026.[23]

As of 2020, ongoing developments in the city included a €90 million office scheme at "Navigation Square" on Albert Quay,[24][25] and a €400 million office, hotel, retail and residential development at Horgans Quay and Cork Kent railway station.[26][17] Planned developments outside the city include a proposed data centre in Little Island,[27][28] and several projects around Cork Harbour.[29] The latter included a €40m redevelopment of Spike Island as a tourist attraction, with a further €40m to clean up the former Irish Steel/Irish Ispat site on Haulbowline Island.[30]

In June 2026, the Irish government approved a preliminary business case for further development of the Cork City Docklands. The business case includes the proposed development of a 147-hectare brownfield site "potentially supporting up to 25,000 jobs".[31] Also, as of 2026, a number of transport infrastructure projects, including BusConnects and a proposed light rail system, were in the planning or consultation phases.[32][33]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Press Statement Census 2022 Results Profile 7 - Employment, Occupations and Commuting Cork". Central Statistics Office. 5 December 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Cork City Employment & Land Use Survey 2011 (PDF) (Report). Cork City Council. March 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 December 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  3. ↑ Gray, Penny (19 June 2026). "Cork: From regional powerhouse to global player". businesspost.ie. Retrieved 26 June 2026. Cork Chamber's new president, Susie Horgan [..said..] "Cork is 11 per cent of Ireland's population and contributes 19 per cent of Ireland's GDP. That's an economy doing more than its share"
  4. 1 2 3 Ryan, M.; Noonan, L.; Doyle, E.; Linehan, D. (2024), "Cork City, Ireland: A blueprint for transformation in second-tier urban centres", Cities (153), doi:10.1016/j.cities.2024.105289, hdl:10468/16158
  5. 1 2 "Census of Population 2016 – Profile 6 Commuting in Ireland. Working in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. Daytime Working Population of Cork". Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  6. ↑ "Census of Population 2022 Profile 7 - Employment, Occupations and Commuting". Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  7. ↑ "Engineering Economy & Place: Ireland" (PDF). Royal Academy of Engineering. 11 March 2026. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  8. ↑ "Amazon to open Irish store in 2025 and expand Cork workforce". corkbeo.ie. 9 May 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2026. [Amazon has] over 1,000 employees and a big Customer Service Centre in Cork
  9. ↑ UCC Strategic Plan 2013 – 2017 (PDF) (Report). UCC.ie. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  10. ↑ "Local Economic and Community Plan 2023–2029". Cork City Council. Retrieved 26 June 2026. Home to over 190 multinational companies including Apple, Boston Scientific and Janssen, Cork has [..] a strong concentration of activity in ICT, Life Sciences, [..] Health, and Retail sectors [..] In 2020 [..] 43,708 [..] were employed in Cork City and County's FDI sector
  11. ↑ "Apple's Cork campus celebrates 40 years of community and looks to the future". Apple Newsroom (Ireland) (Press release). 17 November 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  12. ↑ "Draft Metropolitan Cork Joint Retail Strategy: Executive Summary" (PDF). Cork City Council and Cork County Council. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  13. ↑ "Cork Market Update: H2 2024" (PDF). Lisney. 2025. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  14. ↑ "One Albert Quay - Occupiers". Onealbertquay.com. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  15. ↑ "Ireland's 'smartest building' opens on Albert Quay in Cork". Independent News & Media. 7 March 2016.
  16. ↑ "NEW OFFICE BUILDING: 85 South Mall is fully let". thecork.ie. 16 September 2018.
  17. 1 2 "Kevin O'Neill: Developments in Cork City centre promise to transform city image". irishexaminer.com. Irish Examiner. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  18. ↑ "Request For Extra €12 Million For Cork Event Centre Criticised". Red FM. 21 February 2017. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017.
  19. ↑ "Deal agreed for stalled €73m Cork events centre". Irish Examiner. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  20. ↑ "Event centre build may not start until 2023". irishexaminer.com. Irish Examiner. 13 February 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  21. ↑ "Construction begins on former brewery's Counting House". eveningecho.ie. Evening Echo. 22 October 2018.
  22. ↑ "Cork event centre worth €80m 'will still happen', Coveney says". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 22 August 2018.
  23. ↑ Sheehy, Paschal (12 February 2026). "Government criticised for not delivering Cork events centre". rte.ie. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  24. ↑ "Work to begin on Cork's largest office development this summer". Evening Echo. 29 March 2017.
  25. ↑ "Extra floor approved for Navigation Square in the Cork Docklands". Irish Examiner. 24 September 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  26. ↑ "Docklands plan on track". Evening Echo. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  27. ↑ "Press Release - JCD as a part of a joint venture are developing a data centre campus in Little Island, 5 miles to the east of Cork City". JCD Group Property Development. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  28. ↑ "T5 Data Centers is coming to Europe with a campus in Ireland". DataCentre Dynamics. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  29. ↑ "Cork harbour to get 'Sydney of Europe' makeover". Independent News & Media. 28 February 2017.
  30. ↑ "Cork City Developments: Eight dynamic projects giving the city a facelift". Irish Examiner. 6 April 2015.
  31. ↑ Finn, Sophie (24 June 2026). "Green light for €1bn redevelopment of Cork City Docklands that could yield 25k houses". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  32. ↑ Piccoli, Mia (29 October 2025). "Ministers secure Government Approval for BusConnects Cork". Busconnects. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
  33. ↑ Loughlin, Elaine (3 June 2026). "Transport minister says sports clubs impacted by Cork Luas should be compensated". EchoLive.ie. Retrieved 26 June 2026.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Economy_of_Cork&oldid=1373687050"