In the give-aways at yesterday's second Cabinet meeting outside Dublin, the city was told it would get a new £10 million third-level college which would be a new venture between University College Cork and the Cork Institute of Technology. Up to 1,000 additional college places would be created on the north side of the city, the Minister for Education, Mr Micheal Martin, confirmed, adding that by the year 2003 the first students would be attending the facility.
As anticipated when the Government goes to a regional area there will be regional bonuses.
One of them was that as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, addressed the Regional Assembly of the southern and eastern region, he was able to say that £27 billion from monies earmarked in the national plan had been dedicated to the two regions.
This was "a formidable investment programme", he said.
Local government representatives as well as business interests from both regions attended yesterday's meetings, but there was little critical questioning of the Taoiseach or his Cabinet as he attended what appeared to have been a well-run and orchestrated version of a Fianna Fail ardfheis.
Mr Ahern outlined how the £40 billion level of investment envisaged in the National Development plan was more than double that undertaken in the previous plan.
The Government has trumpeted this fact before and it came as no surprise yesterday in Cork that the message was sounded once again.
There has been some adverse publicity generated by the Travellers' organisation in Cork which objected to the Cabinet and community associations meeting at the Commons Inn.
The objection was because the Travellers alleged they were refused service in the pub some years ago. This was denied vehemently by the owners of the facility. Mr Dermot Ahern, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, welcomed the drop in the live register for Cork city and said that since the Government came into office the figure had dropped by 44 per cent.
"The live register has fallen by 7,185 or 44 per cent since June 1997 when the Government came into office. It is clear that the policies being pursued by this Government to create employment are working", he added.
The visit of the Cabinet to Cork also involved yesterday a sod-turning ceremony for the new Great Southern Hotel at Cork Airport. The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, performed the ceremony and the new £7 million hotel, which will open on Patrick's Day next year, will be the ninth in the hotel group subsidiary of Aer Rianta.
Some 65 jobs will be created there and it is expected to become a major part of Cork city's attraction as an industrial centre for overseas investors.