Fears in Cork that casinos will start to ‘pop up’ everywhere after planning appeal decision

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Cork city councillors have voiced fears that An Coimisiún Pleanála’s decision to overturn the local authority’s refusal of planning permission for a casino-style amusement arcade in Ballincollig will mean that similar gaming arcades will appear all over the city council area.

In a motion brought before this week’s meeting of Cork City Council, Cllr Ciara O’Connor called for a review of the city council’s planning policy regarding gaming arcades and casinos and where they can be located.

“I have a huge concern that they will start popping up because they have a business case for it but it does ruin lives. It leads to addiction from a very early age, it does ruin communities and it's not conducive to communities. An Coimisiún Pleanála just totally disregarded Cork City Council and local residents. I'm really, really disappointed that they overturned this,” Cllr O’Connor said.

“I do think we need to look at it going forward because they will start popping up everywhere and I'm not in fairytale land about that, they will. And I think we need to be very, very careful going forward for any further planning,” the Labour councillor said.

In June 2024, Cork City Council refused permission for the gaming/amusement arcade at Unit 4, Westside Retail Park, Ballincollig, which would be open from 9 am to 1 am daily, saying that the “adult-orientated nature” and its proximity to existing retail outlets that are intrinsically “family-friendly” would damage other retailers. However, in late 2025 the planning appeals body overturned that decision and gave the go-ahead to the plan.

Around 500 people attended a recent protest in Ballincollig against the development and a community petition has been signed by 2,000 residents. Last month Cork City Council unanimously agreed a motion calling on those behind the plan not to proceed with the development.

Cllr Joe Lynch, who proposed last month’s motion, said at this week’s city council meeting that while there are provisions in respect of casinos and arcades in the city development plan, “I do think they need to be more robust and more explicit about the location of these types of developments.”

“I've been against this particular development in Ballincollig since it first emerged. Not because I'm against gambling, but because it's an utterly inappropriate place for this particular development to be. It's 30 metres from the entrance to a primary school, it's two doors down from a large supermarket and it's next door to a pet store. This is a family-orientated retail area. Nearby, there's a number of housing estates as well,” he said.

“I think we need to look at this issue in the context of the next city development plan because there's no reason that any of these types of development should be in our urban villages. Perhaps there's a role for them in the city centre night-time economy, but the reality is that if we don't address this issue we will have more of these developments in places like Douglas, places like Blarney,” the Sinn Fein councillor said.

Cllr Oliver Moran criticised An Coimisiún Pleanála’s decision, saying that the appeals process gives applicants “a second bite of the cherry under different rules, which can lead to all sorts of contortions and strange outcomes. It is essentially a planning system where the second bite of the apple is the one that wins.”

“And I have to ask, in the middle of a housing crisis, why do we have a national planning authority looking at things like this, whether it's gambling in Ballincollig or some other small local matter? These are things which belong with local government, not with a national planning authority. It belongs with the local planning authority where we can put down the policies that it is meant to be decided under,” the Green councillor said.