Cork Airport hotel gets green light to add 20 further rooms
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The owners of the Cork Airport Hotel have received planning permission to expand with a further 20 rooms earmarked for construction on its site.
Barely a stone’s throw away from the airport, and 100m from the terminal building, the development would see a new single-storey building to the rear of the existing hotel.
Currently, it is being used exclusively for the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees receiving temporary protection in Ireland.
Planning documents said that, initially, the 20 extra bedrooms will also be used to house Ukrainians but will be subsequently used as hotel bedrooms “as soon as the Cork Airport Hotel reverts to the established use as hotel accommodation”.
The 81-bedroom hotel is currently fully occupied, housing 203 people, with a “open year” for the new development set out for 2026, according to the documents.
No objections to the proposed development were received, and Cork City Council granted planning permission earlier this week.
The hotel is just one of hundreds of providers across the State currently being used to provide accommodation to those fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine.
However, the Government has been faced with difficulty given that many of the contracts agreed with hotels and other accommodation centres were due to expire this summer.
In May, Taoiseach Simon Harris said that almost 70 contracts were due to expire “shortly” with many hotel and community facilities set to be made available again for public use.
In recent months, the Government introduced tighter rules around welfare supports for asylum seekers and Ukrainians.
Earlier this year, it had already reduced the social welfare payments for Ukrainian refugees who arrived after March from the job seekers’ rate of €232 to €38.80 per week.
It also announced that Ukrainians who had fled to Ireland between 2022 and early 2024 and are living in State-provided accommodation would have their allowances cut.
Separately, the reported this month that some 75 State contracts for accommodation for Ukrainian refugees have been terminated by the Government in the last year due to safety concerns and overcharging by providers.
New data from the Department of Integration shows that their internal compliance team has investigated 278 providers, such as hotels and B&Bs, since last July.
The termination of contracts by the department led to the movement of 4,100 Ukrainian refugees out of their accommodation.
A further 75 providers, for which there were also compliance concerns, have since addressed the issues, according to the department.
This article was updated on August 19 to correct the name of the Cork Airport Hotel.
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