It will be
our shootout at the Ferrybank Corral, with party TD against party TD. The opening
salvos have already been fired in the run up to the report’s release. Locally,
we have FF and FG Councillors, upsetting their elected TDs, by clearly and
openly being in favour of the expansion. Putting their electorate first, above
inter-party politics. There have been contradictory radio interviews, thousands
of written words in the “North side” local newspapers. As for social media. I
am sure the fallout may well take down Mr Zuckerberg’s Facebook empire!
The Report
recommends that the Administration area of Waterford Council, be extended to
include a significant area, lying to the North of the River Suir. Thus,
allowing the City to naturally expand and this in turn should allow for greater
economic flexibility in marketing brand Waterford. In time this will help the
whole South East region to catch up with the other regional areas of Ireland,
which are quite simply miles ahead of Waterford/SE, in terms of their economic
recovery?
Our
Government’s track record, with regard to accepting and implementing reports,
can be vividly demonstrated in the delivery of the Herity Report, on UHW. This
of course means that the “Report of the Waterford Boundary Review Committee”
will have to be realised, in full, no matter what the political outcry or consequences
are!
The
Ministers in the Dáil, cannot cherry pick which parts of this independent
report they wish to activate. It is all or nothing, as with the Herity Report.
A u-turn due to political carping from diametrically opposing views, will not
be tolerated and in fact if this happens every “Independent report” can now be
questioned, ridiculed and binned.
Unfortunately,
like the current health campaign, many will to their own benefit, turn this
into an entirely Waterford issue. Deflecting from the stark economic realities,
that the South East region is so far adrift from the rest of the country, this
expansion needs to happen to generate jobs, jobs and yet more jobs.
Those high
horse political naysayers, with rose tinted glasses and myopic vision, need to
realise that Dublin’s economic sphere of influence is creeping, rather rapidly,
ever closer to our region. This will not only affect Waterford but Wexford,
Kilkenny and Carlow too. Jobs will be sucked towards the capital and we will
very quickly become dead, soulless commuter belts. It is already happening and
to have any chance of stopping the tumbleweed blowing across the whole of the
South East, we MUST compete. These recommendations will go some way to
levelling the playing field.
It beggars
belief that so many, can be influenced by such a few, with only one real
agenda. The agenda of getting re-elected. These absent TDs now espousing a
“Land grab” and some supportive Hacks, even likening the boundary extension to
certain a Mr Hitler invading Poland, need to take a long hard look at
themselves. Perhaps they have a rather jaundiced view of European history when
it comes to Adolf et al?
The
campaign opposed to the boundary extension, took the rather easy option. Asking
people to duplicate, copy and regurgitate the same message, on a simple A4
piece of paper. Where’s the passion and emotion in that?
If this was
such an emotive issue, then surely that should have been reflected in 19,000
individual heartfelt letters written from the soul? Not a Xerox duplicate.
The wider
picture, like our health issues, needs to be addressed. We need investment and
more jobs in the region. Moving a line on a map will undoubtedly help.
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