[ Leading Cork to Take Its Place as a World Class City ]
Commemoration events in 2020 included the special meeting of An Chomhairle to commemorate the election of Tomás Mac Curtain as Lord Mayor of Cork, the Council’s Pledge of Allegiance to Dáil Éireann, the extension of the right to vote to women ratepayers, and the use of proportional representation in an election for the first time and a “Burning of Cork Ceremony” was held on 11th December 2020. A website, exhibitions and a commemoration fund were also held. We have seen high levels of innovation, partnership, and collaboration to mitigate the impact of the pandemic with our city businesses, customers, visitors and investors. We once again demonstrated that we are a resilient city with a vision and strategy to be agile, innovative, and most importantly people centric. Some of the key initiatives from 2020 towards Reimagining Cork included the pedestrianisation of our city streets, improvement and
implementation of additional cycle lanes, parking initiatives, resurfacing bus and cycle lanes, and provision of alfresco dining. Cork City Council and the Cork City Local Enterprise Office worked with communities, traders, streets and business representative groups to introduce measures to support the local economy in a new safe way. Crucially, Cork City Council provided nearly ¤48 million in rates waivers last year and nearly ¤30 million in restart grants to small, medium and larger business. We paid another ¤5.5 million as part of the 30% top up and ¤2 million on further appeals. Cork City Council will continue to give aid where it is needed. Elected members of council, the executive and all the staff will, as always do their utmost to see that Cork City will rise to the challenges that face it in the future, by displaying leadership to and empathy for all of the diverse peoples that are the lifeblood of a truly inclusive, integrated, forward looking community of equals.
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