Progress report on Cavan County Development Plan

Three out of four respondents to a survey carried out among local businesses cited a lack of appropriate serviced land as “an obstacle” in terms of expanding their business.

With almost two thirds telling the Local Enterprise Office that they would require additional enterprise space within the next five years, 92% cited the cost of a premises as a challenge if they were to expand, while 90% highlighted the cost of development land as the biggest problem facing them.

The survey was conducted among LEO supported businesses, as well as Enterprise Ireland and IDA companies across Co Cavan. Together they represent the vast majority of the employment base across the county.

Latest Enterprise Ireland records shows that 6,681 people were employed at businesses supported by the Government agency. Separately, there are nine IDA companies in Cavan, with over 800 people employed; and nearly double that number working for firms benefiting from guidance provided by the LEO.

The survey detail is contained in the two-year progress report on the achievement of objectives set out in the Cavan County Development Plan 2024-2029, which also incorporates a Local Area Plan for Cavan Town. It also provides a wide-ranging update on progress towards achieving other core strategy objectives such as roads, environment and housing.

Noted at the February monthly meeting of Cavan County Council, which took place at The Lavey Inn, the year-two update details how towns and villages in the county have performed well in terms of population growth, as evident from the 2022 Census.

The Core Strategy of the County Development Plan sets out the requirement for the construction of around 4,000 new houses for the plan period.

Completion certificates submitted to Building Control (176) are not required for one-off houses, but still council records show that nearly a third of all new builds have been close to Cavan Town itself (57), followed by Ballyconnell (35), Kingscourt (28), Ballinagh (15), and Virginia (12).

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), which utilises ESB connection data to produce statistics per quarter, show however that 1,090 houses have been completed in Cavan since 2022.

Compact growth, the council feel, is “fundamental” to achieving sustainable growth in Cavan, and monitoring indicates that over 90% of the dwellings approved since adoption of the plan are located in urban areas.

The number of four-plus bed units has gradually decreased since the adoption of the Development Plan, from 22.99% in 2022 to 8.66% last year; while the development of two-bed units has continued to rise, up 17% since the implementation of the plan.

The total housing stock in Cavan increased by 842 to 34,427 units between 2016 and 2022; while the number of vacant households decreased by 1,852 (2.73%).

As of January 2025, there were 36 properties recorded on the Derelict Sites register.

For the people, the council has prioritised the creation of sustainable neighbourhoods, which aim to support thriving communities and provide for a wide range of housing types, age groups and tenures with community facilities close by.

In terms of education, the council seeks to ensure adequate lands are zoned for facilities during the County Development Plan process; while from a cultural perspective the local authority has continued to grow and expand, both in terms of its core business and its wider offer. Visitor numbers have continued to grow over the past three years, following a reduction after the COVID-19.

The Townhall Cavan Arts Centre in Cavan Town has, since the CDP was adopted, hosted 192 events, sold 26,661 tickets to 7,050 unique customers with a total box office income of €397,043.

Elsewhere, the council continues its efforts to transition to a low carbon, competitive, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable way of doing things.

The Cavan County Council Climate Action Plan 2024-2029 was adopted in February 2024, a key document in relation to the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

“The primary goal of this plan is to ensure a sustainable future for the people of Cavan,” says the plan.

From an enterprise point of view, 21 microenterprises have benefited from LEO Financial Support Packages, and 301 participants completed a start your own business course.

Planning permission has also been secured by the council for the Advanced Building Solution through Cavan Digital Hub DAC. This is a unique partnership, the first of its kind in the county. It will provide for a 35,000sq ft state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that will be targetted towards high-end engineering firms, or those involved in the development of medical devices, robotics and automation, life sciences and bio pharma.

The Cavan Digital Hub itself has a cluster of 11 digital companies employing over 120 people.

Industrial lands

A cross-border collaborative approach between five local authorities along the Border, meanwhile, identified an undersupply of appropriately serviced industrial lands and enterprise as a common threat to the long-term economic growth of the region. Cavan, Monaghan, Fermanagh/ Omagh, Mid Ulster and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon District councils supported the completion of a comprehensive feasibility study with relevant projections, which has since been submitted to the Shared Island Unit.

There are, the two-year report states, a number of key sites within Cavan, which present the “potential for physical and social regeneration”, albeit with the support of private and public sector enterprise and investment, including NPF and European funding, in particular Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and Urban Regeneration and Development Fund.

From jobs to travel, the council continues its commitment to developing and maintaining a high quality and sustainable transport network. The local authority is also working too towards sourcing funding for the development of greenways and walking and cycling trails.

Major road projects

Along with progress on the Virginia Bypass, the council were granted TII approval for the use of the TII’s framework for the procurement of consultants to progress the project through Phases 1 to 4 (inclusive) on the N55 Ballinagh Relief Road plan.

Regarding the environment and water, the CDP sets out how the council intends to develop, protect, improve and extend water, wastewater and flood alleviation and environmental services.

The Council continues to operate 26 wastewater treatment plants under a service level agreement with Irish Water; and last year works began on building the new Ballyjamesduff Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), due for completion in the third quarter of 2026.

The Virginia WWTP, meanwhile, is due to be completed in late 2026.

Under waste management, the council actively explores alternative ways to deal with output, working with local industry to ensure, where possible, that waste is “seen as a resource”.

Tourism and heritage finally - both natural and built - feature prominently in the CDP.

The council continues to work in partnership with external agencies to utilise the county’s natural and heritage resources, including the delivery of a world-class visitor experience in the northern region of Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands- The Shannon Pot Discovery Centre.

Over €90,000 has been spent on the promotion of the county as a visitor destination over the last two years, while the feasibility of further developing the links between the built and natural heritage of the county, in particular the influence of Lough Oughter and associated lakes, is being looked at.

Approximately 30 planning applications have been approved on properties that are Protected Structures since the adoption of the CDP, and the Heritage Office also secured allocations of €96,000 from the Department’s Built Heritage Investment over the past three years, from which 16 protected structures have benefited in 2022 and 23 more in both 2023 and 2024.

Conclusions are that “clear progress” has been demonstrated in many elements of the CDP, especially with respect to environmental protection and management.

“No issues have been identified,” it concluded, and any mitigating measures are considered to be “effective and adequate”.

“It is recommended that this report is used to inform future reporting on the monitoring of the plan over the coming years.”