It was with great shock that I read last week that the
Government had decided to “gift” the LE Aoife to the Maltese Government to help
with the humanitarian crisis currently faced by this small island nation
strategically situated in the Mediterranean, and an ideal target destination for
those having to flee North Africa.
Whilst I applaud the Government’s rapid response to the
crisis currently affecting many Mediterranean countries, surely there should be
a coordinated Pan-European response to the problem and it cannot be the sole
responsibility of Ireland to come up with an individual solution. There are
many, many asset rich Mediterranean and European countries that are far better
placed than Ireland is to offer relatively modern patrol vessels suitable for
the Maltese Armed Forces exacting needs.
The fact that it now appears the Maltese Government and the
Maltese Armed Forces deem the LE Aoife “unsuitable for the role” begs the
question why was the LE Aoife offered in the first place? Was there sufficient
pre-offer discussions? Or was the Minister genuinely offering help in response
to the crisis? I believe the Minister indisputably wanted to help and in his
eagerness to do just that offered the LE Aoife without completing a suitability
study.
What is absolutely sure is that the decommissioned LE Aoife
is 100% suitable for a proposed plan to bring her to Waterford City to play a
central role in a proposed nautical museum piece and would also play an essential
role in a South East, 170 kilometres, Maritime Trail around some key South
East’s maritime destinations.
This plan was put together by me, James Doherty and Eddie
Mulligan (now Cllr Eddie Mulligan) who due to his career association with the
Irish Navy took the lead role in the project.
The Maritime Trail project, with the LE Aoife at its very
heart, was launched in July 2013 to the then Mayor of Waterford City and the Minister
of State at
the Departments of An Taoiseach and Defence. Additional presentations were made
later that year and a full final business plan was due to be presented to
Waterford Council this week. The business plan to bring the LE Aoife to
Waterford City had been researched and benchmarked against similar projects in
Ireland and in the UK such as the Dunbrody (New Ross) and Jeanie Johnston
(Dublin), The Mary Rose (Portsmouth), The Discovery and Unicorn Frigate
(Dundee) and HMS Belfast and Cutty Sark (London). The project would have been
supported by volunteers and the manufacturing and engineering firms of
Waterford City.
There can be no doubt that the LE Aoife would have
been a significant tourism draw to Waterford City and would have tied in with
the Viking Longboat and possibly a restoration project for the Portlairge
dredger.
Three iconic ships on display, on The Quay, in Waterford
City – now that would be a mouth watering prospect.
We still hold out hope that the decision can be
reversed and the LE Aoife can now be “gifted” to Waterford City for the maritime
project. If she does have to sail away to Malta then we wish her Godspeed.
Should we see the LE Aoife sail off into the sunset we have
to be very cognisant that this is yet another potential project that Waterford City
has once again missed out on. A project that would have had a significant
social and community contribution, as well as generating much needed local
income.
We have seen recently a repeated story of projects leeching
out of Waterford City all too often, I am afraid.
Only last week we read a statement in the local media that a
Dublin based architect had “won” the rights to the design for the Michael
Street shopping centre development. Apparently, this company had been engaged
for some time and possibly as far back as 2013. I understand that the original
design and planning work for this development was done by a Waterford City
based architect.
Do we not have to ask the question why was the Waterford
based company not engaged to finish a project they had been involved in for so many
years?
I also learned last week that the new fire station design work
had also been “won” by a Dublin based company and low and behold one of the
suppliers for internal furniture comes from Northern Ireland – now where is the
sense in that!
You have to applaud the Office of Government Procurement for
working towards getting best value for money for tendered projects and
therefore our taxes. However, there must surely at the very least be a social
aspect to accepting tender bids that must take into account local businesses
and the simple fact that a local business will put money back into the local
economy.
Rest assured the Dublin based companies are taking money OUT
of Waterford’s economy and is there ANY contribution coming into our local
economy from the appointment of a company from Northern Ireland?
One of the biggest Government contracts has been “won” by a
company from the USA and they are working from a European base in the UK. So
just how is this company contributing to the Irish economy? Is there any money
coming back in terms of vat, taxes and other contributions?
When tender projects are conceived surely there has to be an
acknowledgement to local companies to allow them to tender and then take into
account the fact these local companies employ local people, who spend locally,
pay local commercial rates and other forms of local taxes.
We must ask ourselves are we happy to let more and more
contracts go outside of Waterford?
Someone must take a lead role in ensuring that Waterford
companies can at the very least compete with other larger organisation for
Government contracts. There has to be a built-in social aspect to any tender
and we do need our leaders to stand up and fight for Waterford businesses.
I am constantly reminded that if your company is the wrong
side of the Jack Lynch Tunnel you will not secure business in Cork. If you are
outside of the M50 you will not secure business in Dublin.
Can we not write local government tender contracts that
require a business to be “on site” within 30 or 40 minutes? This would at the
very least ensure a local company can compete for a contract.
What we do need are people who want local companies to
compete for local projects and we need them to put their hand up and
proactively ask local companies to step up to the mark.
As Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning,
keeping together is progress and working together is success.” Maybe this is where we should start?
ENDS
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