Today’s meeting of Kilkenny County Council has seen some of its members question the wisdom of forging ahead with plans for a multi-million euro office space in the city.
The concerns were raised after the same meeting discussed the need for fibre broadband in the county – and the future of working from home.
Their discussions led to tense exchanges over the Abbey Quarter development, which has cost the council €7.6 million to date.
When the local authority purchased the former Brewery Site in 2014, Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick says their Chief Executive at that time claimed it would create 500 jobs for the county.
Today, Cllr Fitzpatrick asked what progress had been made on securing those jobs, and whether there was still any truth in that claim.
Meanwhile, Cllr Eugene Mc Guinness was strongly against the Quarter engineers’ practice of what they called “speculative development”, referring to their decision to continue building the space without revealing which businesses- or how many- would eventually occupy it.
Cllr Maria Dollard echoed these concerns, and raised her own fears about parking issues she believes will be created by the Abbey Quarter.
However, Kilkenny County Council’s Chief Executive Colette Byrne insisted that pushing ahead with the project has been “the right decision for Kilkenny” and believes they’ll soon see the rewards of that decision.
To find out more on this story, stay tuned for full coverage on KCLR tomorrow.
