Huge part of Cork City still without a fire station of its own despite urgent finding of 2025 report

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Cork City Council has yet to identify a site for a new fire station in the south-west of the city, eight months after a report recommended one be built there to ensure adequate fire cover for an area with a growing population, including Ballincollig, which has a population of over 20,000 people but currently no fire station.

In a written response to a question from Ballincollig Councillor Joe Lynch, Director of Services David Joyce said the process of selecting and evaluating an appropriate site for the fire station is ongoing. “It is not possible at this stage to put a definitive timeline on the completion of this very complex process but work will continue until a site has been identified,” he said.

The Cork City Fire Cover Review Report published in June 2025 recommended the construction of a new full-time fire station to serve the south-west of the city, including Ballincollig, Bishopstown, Curraheen and Cork Airport. It recommended that it be built at a location between Ballincollig and Bishopstown with access to the N40.

Mr Joyce said the city council has been in touch with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage about the project and “we have impressed upon them that this is a priority infrastructural project for Cork city and will play an important role in the future of fire service delivery in Cork city as the city expands over time.”

“The funding for the project with be considered under the National Fire Services Capital Programme 2026-2030. Allocations under this programme are based on the totality of requests received from fire authorities countrywide and Cork city will ensure that our capital funding request will be submitted for consideration as part of this programme,” he said.

In a follow-up question at this week’s meeting of Cork City Council, Cllr Lynch asked when is the deadline for submitting a funding request to the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management, “given how vital securing national government funding is going to be to deliver this project.”

Mr Joyce responded that “there is no specific closure deadline for this funding. They [the Directorate] are very, very aware of our needs and they are very aware of the importance we place on this particular piece of infrastructure.”

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Cllr Lynch said he wants to see the process moving more quickly. “The new fire station was a welcome recommendation, which followed three and a half years of closure of the part-time fire station in Ballincollig. From a Ballincollig perspective, it means that we will have a better service than we've ever had before - by way of location of a full-time service, in a full-time station, just minutes away; providing a better response time than was possible under the part-time service that existed previously.”

“I said at the time of the review's findings being published that they needed to be acted on urgently and without delay. Whilst I understand these processes are complex, there needs to be progress made - a site needs to be identified and funding needs to be secured to turn what is currently a recommendation on paper into a fire station in reality. I will keep pressing the matter with council management in the time ahead,” he said.