“E-A-R-L-Y” – we all know how to spell that word Enda!

It was suggested by Enda Kenny in last week’s national news that the 2016 General Election would be held in early spring and, just to emphasise the point, the Taoiseach actually spelled the word for us just to make it easier to understand, “Early in the Spring. E-A-R-L-Y.” he stated whilst at an event in Madrid.

Anyone would think he was a school teacher – oh wait a minute, he is!

At least now we know that the country is on General Election footing and have no doubt that ALL the political parties and independent TDs are gathering their troops and starting to plan their election campaigns. And this will give an opportunity to all of us, who have registered to vote, to plan our own questions for those putting their names forward for the 2016 General Election.

For those who have not registered to vote, there is still time to make sure that you can have your say and let me be very clear that everyone should register to vote and then everyone will be allowed to have their say and ultimately influence the result next year. There will no doubt be many sitting TDs hoping and praying that new voters do not appear on the register and, in fact, I am sure that many of these TDs are in fact quite happy at the very poor levels of political engagement seen across this country. This means that they will yet again rely on diehard traditional voters to come out and vote. Thus, returning the same average number of electoral votes we are now used to seeing year after year after year.

Coming back for 2016!

Now, just for one minute, imagine that the whole of Ireland were to become enthused with politics over the next six months and then just imagine how much effort and engagement our political representatives would be forced to make with every single voter. We would all feel the better for increased levels of engagement and therefore we would all be able to grill and demand a better performance from our representatives. You only have to look across the Channel to see what difference higher levels of public engagement has made to the political map in Scotland and in the UK in general. And only when higher levels of public engagement are made can we really hold our representatives accountable to us the V-O-T-E-R.

If we are to make changes for the better in Irish Politics then we, the V-O-T-E-R, must be more vocal, more interactive and we need to benchmark just how our representatives are performing.

We have heard over the last few weeks promises of this funding and that funding for Waterford City and County when, in reality, once you read the very small print, many of these headline grabbers are in fact “pipedreams!” If these are not pipedreams then the promise of funding and game changer investments must be delivered and delivered now. If they cannot be delivered prior to the next Election then Government’s promised investment in our City and County must be ring fenced and we need our existing TDs to “SHOW US THE MONEY!” before E-Day in 2016.

 

I fear that, as we move ever closer to an “E-A-R-L-Y” spring election, we will start to read and hear more and more spin about what has been delivered and what can be delivered in the future.

However, if we are really to see our representatives making a R-E-A-L difference to Waterford, then we, the electorate, must once and for all engage with everyone who puts their name forward for the 2016 Election. We must tell them what we want and let them know that we will be monitoring their performance, their promises and we will ultimately judge their honesty.

What we cannot do in the 2016 General Election is revert back to our old “traditional voting preferences” as that is just what we are expected to do.

Let us “C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E” the mediocrity in 2016!

LE Aoife a sad loss for Waterford City.

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