What if your Local Property Tax was to go up?

“Well boi”, it’s that time of year once again!

Behind the closed, locked doors of City Hall and Dungarvan Civic Offices, our 32 Councillors will be, should be, fiddling with their calculators. (This is not a euphemism!) They’re deciding the Waterford City and County budget for 2018. But just what might this mean for you, the reader?

The actual process of passing and approving a “Balanced budget” is rather strange. As there is so much of the Executives’ budget that is quite literally “Untouchable”. In fact our Councillors can only change, alter or influence a rather small percentage of a much larger circa €130,000,000 budget. With the Lansdowne-Haddington-kick-the-can-down-the-Road agreements coming on stream, we could see pressure being heaped on our Council to contribute more to budgetary areas. Expected pay and pension increases that may not actually be covered by additional, supplementary central exchequer grants/funds. This of course means you and I have to pay for this.

You might recall, that our local news and media, covered many column inches, giving lots of radio snippets, about just how there could be absolutely NO Local Property Tax (LPT) or Commercial Rates increases for 2017. The Councillors agreed that the timing was NOT right!

What has changed in our economic outlook that makes increase charges to LPT and Commercial Rates, a very realistic possibility for 2018?

Look at highly regarded reports, such as the WIT “South East Economic Monitor” and more recently the Council’s very own, Indecon “Economic Cost Benefit Appraisal of the Waterford City Urban Renewal Scheme”. The Indecon document is the actual report, commissioned by the Council, submitted to Government for circa €61,000,000 of exchequer funding. Income that would make possible the alteration to infrastructural groundwork. Which in turn, would allow Saudi Arabia’s Fawaz Alhokair Group, to build on our Strategic Development Zone, on the North Quays.

Both of these reports detail and outline, in no uncertain terms, Waterford City/County and the wider South East region have some way to go, to catch up on the rest of the country’s “Green shoots of recovery”. In fact the gulf, excuse the pun, between some of the economic indicators is, in truth, quite jaw dropping. Disposable income, percentage of the population at risk of poverty, labour force participation rates, unemployment rates, third level attainment....and more besides, make for some incredibly grim reading.

But then we all know that the South East has been neglected by successive Governments for year, after year, after year.

The statistics produced, make an exceptionally compelling and concrete case for Government support for the Alhokair Group’s plans for the North Quays. I do hope that this money is forthcoming from this current Government. Kick starting a REAL recovery in Waterford and the wider South East region. One would also hope that any infrastructural funding would find its way to Waterford. Much, much faster than our rented, National Health Service mobile catheterisation laboratory did! (It has arrived! But then again you would know this, due to the “Trumpeting”, by a few on social media).

Oh and we must remember that with a local council election scheduled for 2019, next year is realistically, the only opportunity that our 32 brave men and women have, to impose punitive increases. Increases on both our LPT and that other easily reached cash cow, Commercial Rates. After all who would want to be imposing unpopular increases, when disproportionate door knocking is already pencilled into the diary?

Any increase, no matter how small, will affect our particularly local economy. Businesses and households are already extraordinarily tight for money, facing continued huge increases in car insurance, rising back to school costs, a spiralling cost of living, fuel expenses for both car and home inflating. Business overheads are also rising disproportionately, thus not reflecting where Waterford’s economy presently sits. The previously mentioned reports, back up just how tight we ALL are for money and disposable income is as rare as hen’s teeth.

What are we to do if increases are imposed by our elected 32 for 2018? Simply ask them directly;

“Why should I be paying more?” Above all, it’s imperative you take an interest in what your Councillors are doing for you and Waterford.

There are indeed mysterious forces at work!

No sooner had we just started to get over our team’s, oh so close All-Ireland hurling final exploits, when along comes another magnificent sporting success. Waterford FC, are promoted back to their rightful place in the Irish Premier League. A very significant achievement in the Blues chequered history. All the more remarkable when you consider that the team have had to drag themselves from the gutter of the lower echelons of first division football.

The new owner and assembled backroom team, have undoubtedly worked miracles, in an incredibly short period of time. Akin, perhaps, to seeing a Leprechaun’s Pot of Gold!

To take the disaster left by the previous manager, turning this around into a championship winning team, is nothing short of miraculous. Yes, significant money was injected into the club, but that’s precisely what was needed, to be fair. That speculation has now paid off handsomely. We can expectantly assume that additional investment will be forthcoming to get Waterford back to competing in some form of European football. Despite some social media soccer lovies criticising said spend, just how else was this Waterford club to climb the league ladder?

For those, such as John O’Sullivan and Paul Cleary, who have had to endure the toughest of times, may they and many others enjoy the celebrations. Then start looking forward to top flight football next season.

I have said for many years that for Waterford to succeed commercially, we would also need sporting success, running in tandem. It would appear that we have reached a turning point in Waterford’s hurling and soccer stories. There is no mystery as to why this corner has been turned. The hard, hard graft endured during cold Winter’s nights of training under floodlights, is finally beginning to reap suitable rewards.

“You can’t beat live football”, local pundit Matt Keane often reminds us and next year we should have an abundance of top soccer coming to the Regional Sports Centre.

All too often, just as you reach for the summit, you can come back down to earth with an almighty bump. Something that we here in Waterford seem to experience far, far too regularly.

“We giveth in one hand and we taketh away in another!” could easily be the calling card of our current Government, when talking about all things Waterfordian.

Our sporting highs have been overshadowed by what would appear to be yet more bad news looming, in relation to University Hospital Waterford. At the time of writing, according to unsubstantiated reports, our Tipp neighbours may be annexed from our hospital grouping, by those masters of preposterous-piss-poor-planning – the HSE. It looks like mysterious forces have been covertly working away behind closed, barricaded doors in Dublin. One would assume in consultation with Government and appropriate Ministers. Nothing happens in the civil service, without the odd compliant TD here and there, agreeing to “Changes in principle”.

If we are to believe that these changes are afoot, then yet more services will bleed from University Hospital Waterford, leaving us with a hospital that has no regional bias whatsoever. As more and more capacity is removed from UHW, we have to ask ourselves just when is enough ENOUGH? 

Waterford has a Minister and one, almost impossible to spot TD in Government. We have people at the top table and yet we constantly have to climb up Mount Everest unsupported, without crampons or oxygen!!!

Are our Government colleagues prepared to say that they know nothing, nil, faic, zilch of the proposal from the HSE, in relation to Tipp? If they are going to adopt this proposal then we have to ask “Should they not make it their business to know?”

Rest assured Teflon TD Lowry will know exactly what is on the table for his beloved, demanding, adoring constituents.

So once again, according to our pair of, “In power TDs”, there are mysterious forces at work. Prepared to drive yet another nail into our coffin lid. But wait, hold the hammer, did not the South East FG regional Councillors write a letter to “Dear Leo”? Yes, they did and of course that will make all the difference.

I think we have more chance of seeing John’s aliens!

“We loves an auld report, we do!”

It has to be said, that we here in Waterford just love to get or download one “Auld report” after another, telling us just what we already know!

The problem being, that those with parish pump vested interests in looking after their own constituents do not unfortunately, operate out of Waterford City and County. The power brokers, as we know, live somewhere else in this wee green island on the edge of Europe.

The Net result, is that Waterford has a veritable national library of reports, gathering dust in filing cabinets, desk drawers and being used as doorstops. I even saw one last week in a pub, stopping a table from wobbling (didn’t really, but you get my drift)!!!

The latest WIT South East Economic Monitor was published on 1^st July. This is an excellent wee snapshot, of just where Waterford fares in relation to our nearest and dearest neighbouring counties. The report manages to dumb down the myriad of statistics out there, into something that we should all be reading. This simplified version of just how slowly our recovery is crawling along, makes good reading – provided of course that you are interested in this sort of thing!

Here’s the crux of such reports. We should ALL be interested in their content and their findings. It is after all not rocket science. Every man and his dog knows that regional diversity and investment has failed. There is NO regional strategy that has worked to the benefit of Waterford and the greater South East region. Yes, every single successive Government has talked about “A regional economic policy”, supported by a report that states “This will work!” But time and time again we have witnessed abject failure when it comes to Ireland’s South East and North West, for that matter.

Minister Coveney’s “Ireland 2040 – Our Plan” (I’ve lost count which number this report actually is) promises to double the size of Waterford City in the next number of years. Just how will this be done if you look at where we are starting from in 2017? The WIT report shows the huge enormity of the task in hand. “Fact”, our economic foundations are, at best, built on a very, very unstable model. To make Waterford great once again, we will have to do something very radical, to get away from the low cost, low wage model that we now seem to have accepted as the norm.

We have known for years that the proportionate spending in the City and County is way below national averages. You only have to ask an honest retailer “How is business?” and they will tell you that it is “VERY TOUGH trading in Waterford and has been for the last number of years!” Yes, there may be signs of economic recovery, but they are miniscule shoots and hard to spot for many a business.

Unfortunately, many, as always, will interpret the tough trading conditions in a completely different way. Come Waterford Council’s 2018 budget deliberations, just how many of our 32 Councillors will be advocating a Commercial Rates increase? I guarantee you that the CEO’s budget will be looking for a 2, 3, 4 or 5% increase on business rates. Just where will this additional money come from, when ALL the recent reports clearly show that it is just NOT there, to take out of our exceedingly fragile economy?

If you look hard enough there is good news tucked away in some recent reports though!

TravelMag.com has published a recent report on “The 20 most charming towns in Ireland”. Happily, I can report that Waterford gets a mention with both Dungarvan and Lismore making the grade and featuring in this top 20. “Dungarvan has managed to retain much of its traditional Irish charm” and “Writer Dervla Murphy, who was born in Lismore, continues the town’s literary tradition.”

So, we can find some good news stories, it is just that they are, by their nature, harder to find!

There is a plaque, in The Granville Hotel, commemorating the gift of a clock to Mayor Meagher. Upon receiving the present he reportedly stated “NOT another bloody clock!”

Lessons in history are never really learned, but often espoused. 

Time to support our own!

One Swallow doesn’t make a summer! It is not one good quality that makes a man!

These are certainly two sayings that could well be used to paraphrase the Festive shopping period in Waterford City. Some, quite wrongly assumed, that as there appeared to have been large numbers of people visiting Waterford in December, taking in the wonders of Winterval, exploring the architecture of Ireland’s oldest city, visiting our retailers, that businesses have, figuratively speaking, made a “killing!”

This of course could not be further from the truth.

Many businesses have done well over the festive period, with the hotels, restaurants and entertainment establishments being particularly buoyant. There can be no doubt, that general retail had at best flat sales when compared to 2016 and some sales were even slightly down on last year. Many will ask just how this could be, when guesstimated numbers for Winterval could be in excess of half a million, going on the 2015 figures (we are still awaiting the official bean counter announcement)!

All the data released so far, will back up the fact that Christmas sales were, for many retailers, very disappointing. As these could account for up to 30% of a businesses’ annual turnover, the real cost of a poor Christmas, in terms of sales, hits home during the months of January, February and early March.

There are many contributing factors to these poor sales and there can be no doubt that countless shoppers, are simply holding on to more of their hard earned cash due to continued uncertainty in the economy. In addition, Waterford and across the wider southeast, we continue to be a low wage economy with higher unemployment, when compared to national averages. This in turn means that we have less disposable income to spend in our local shops. After all, if you only have €50 of disposable income in Waterford, compared to €150 in another city, then who will have a stronger, better economy – it really is that simple. WE have far less to go around.

 

For years we have suffered, as regional strategy, after regional strategy, has left Waterford City and the southeast’s economy trying to play catch-up.  We have been running the 100m, against the likes of Mr Bolt. But we have been wearing wellies that are two sizes too big, filled with custard and our lane has been coated in treacle! It is proving impossible to get on even terms, let alone be in with a chance of winning the race.

To throw even more fuel on the fire, we have very low third level attainment and we are the only region not to have a University. This in turn means that we have limited higher education capacity for our children. The lack of IDA visits is a constant thorn in our side and for the period 2011-2015 the southeast accounted for only 4% of new IDA jobs created. There are many other metrics that clearly show we have much to do to get back on an even keel. But then you the readers already know this! Don’t you?

But here is the crux of the issue. Getting people to talk openly and honestly about where our economy is, proves very, very difficult, time and time again. There are very few people willing to speak up, because they somehow fear that speaking the truth, will sound negative! Yet, our very own excellent academics, in WIT, have been saying the above for many years. So why can’t we be more honest and say it like it is?

If our businesses do not start speaking loudly enough to be heard, then many of those in power (locally and nationally) will, wrongly assume, that Waterford’s economy is “booming”. Come the Council budget next year, scores of our Councillors will vote for commercial rates increases. Maybe increased car parking charges, increased property taxes and who knows what else.

We need to stop being the “Quiet people of Waterford” and start to shout just a wee bit louder. In the meantime get out and support your local businesses – because once they are gone they are gone!

Time to find out who has the “Biggest Cojones!”

At the time of writing this wee column, Monday 5^th December, our Councillors had rejected the CEO’s proposed 2017 budget for Waterford Council. A budget which was presented to our 32 Councillors, at a plenary session, on Tuesday 29^th November. The basis of this overwhelming rejection, was due to the proposed Commercial Rates increase, to fill the now perennial black hole in the budget of around €1.3 million.

The meeting last week was watched by a “Packed” public gallery and press core. In reality, there were 5 members of the public in attendance. Only two stayed the course, for the three hour marathon meeting. In the end the members of the local press outnumbered the public by one!

Not really a great turnout for such an important meeting and the most essential function of our 32 Councillors.

The Pact, made up of our Fianna Fail, Fianna Gael and Labour Councillors, to a man and one woman, rejected unequivocally, the proposed budget. Based on the fact, that it was not the right time to be seen to be increasing Commercial Rates across Waterford City and County.

We even had Councillors Cummins (FG) and Quinlan (FF), who were both across the start line before any gun was fired! Reaffirming their position on the local airwaves, immediately after the budget meeting. Stating the position of their respective parties that a budget cannot be passed if it contains any Commercial Rates increases for 2017.

Now, I have no doubt that in the last seven days since the budget meeting, there has been an awful lot of shuttle diplomacy, Council Executive pressure cooker meetings with various Councillors, threats, counter threats and probably even the odd personal text message. Each side has been jockeying for position to try to see how a balanced budget can be passed.

The Pact laid down a very sizeable marker last week, when they rejected the CEO’s budget proposal. This was history in the making and a first for Waterford. Whilst, they did not show their hand there and then, or come up with an alternative budget, they did ask for two adjournments and another seven days of grace, in order to align their ducks. Seeking alternatives for the proposed budgetary increases in insurance, payroll and Irish Waterford fallout, to name but a few.

Now, the question must be, “Do the Pact have the Big Cajones to stick to their promise of a no rates increase?”

Seven days is a long time in politics and pressure influences people in many different ways. Many see pressure as a challenge and some just simply fold under it. With previous battle hardened cries simply turning into whispered whimpers, by those who don’t have big enough testes, to follow through with their promises.

So, if your are reading today’s newspaper and the headline news is a Commercial Rates increase for 2017, then we have Councillors who are frightened and are scared to carry out their one of their primary functions. Their spin after last week’s initial budget meeting was all for nothing and the dirty face of local politics has once again blighted Waterford’s progression.

However, ‘tis the season to be jolly and I for one, as a Scottish rugby fan and therefore an eternal optimist, hope that the Pact stand by their promise, to deliver an alternative budget with NO Commercial rates increase for 2017.

Waterford has yet to see significant green shoots and we need to get the message out that we are open for business. What we don’t need is yet another political charade. Bear in mind our competitors are slowly but surely sneaking ahead of us on many fronts. A wee trip to Wexford for example and you will see a significant amount of building, construction, cheaper car parking, heavy footfall....all done on the Q.T. They are not the only ones forging ahead of Waterford!

In many ways, having now aged several years, by being in attendance at last week’s landmark budget meeting, my appetite has only been whetted, as I await to see which of our Pact members delivers on their promise.

“A Cup for Life” – no it is NOT an early April Fools!

Waterford City was last week left shell-shocked, by the terrible news that the Waterford to London Luton air route will yet again be pulled, cancelled and withdrawn, from our regional airport. This now means that the regional airport has once again been left floundering in a desperate search of yet another European carrier to fill this cavernous void.

The BIG question is, “Is there another carrier out there?”

It is a glaring fact, that the very fast, traffic light free M9 has made it so much easier to travel north, towards all things Dublin, and the cheap flight options which this brings. There are very few people, south of the M7 corridor, actually travelling back down the M9, towards Waterford airport and all things “Sunny South East”!

If you were in any way up to speed with this carrier’s business profile, you will have known that they have been in financial difficulties for some time now. With mounting, unsustainable losses, it was realistically only a matter of time before the inevitable happened and the business effectively ceased trading.

This bitter pill to swallow was, I am sure, discussed at last week’s full Council Plenary meeting. However I was made aware, via a media twitcher, that in the midst of yet another crisis that will adversely affect our FDI profiling and the economic stability of the city, county and region in general, some of our Councillors put forward an implausible motion (please note this motion was not passed) calling on our patchwork quilt of a Government to, and wait for it, as you are reading this correctly;

“Ban take-away coffee cups, asking the Government to introduce some sort of “Cup for Life” plan, similar to the plastic bag scheme!” Because as we all know a cup is not just for Christmas it should be for life!

Are we really going to ask all our citizens and visitors alike to carry a mug from home or a “Cup for Life” around with them whilst in work or at play? NO!!!!!

Can you imagine in 2017, tourists coming to Waterford after a weary trip down from “Up North” (the regional airport having failed to receive Government funding to extend the runway and thus attract a viable carrier). Are said tourists, expected to wander around the City Centre and dropping into one of our excellent coffee shops only to be met by someone saying to them, “I can’t serve you coffee unless you’ve brought your own cup!”

Now think this through to it’s obvious conclusion. Coffee shops could sell a “cup for life” to the customers but that might add another €3 or €4 to the price of a coffee and besides when you are on holiday the very last things you want to be looking after is a bloody coffee cup for life!!!!!!

The customer is without doubt going to think they have arrived in a banana republic, that has clearly lost all sense of reality.

Imagine yourself on holiday, in the sunny south of Spain, and you are presented with the same scenario by the tanned smouldering barista? The answer would be “Feck Off!” or at least words similar to this phrase, but maybe with a different vowel here and there! You would laugh and walk away never to return to that coffee emporium again. Or better still you would present the barista with a bucket, telling him this is your Cup for Life, and asking him to fill it to the brim, with his expensive coffee!

How do the Councillors propose controlling portion size? How do you stop insurance claims from people burning themselves? All current take away coffee cups tell you, “this cup contains hot liquid” and who is going to get THAT printed on the family’s finest bone china?

Clearly, then some of our Councillors have far too much time on their hands. Should they not be getting on with the business of making Waterford an economic powerhouse?

“A Cup for Life” – don’t make me laugh!

Done and dusted.

As Winterval comes to the end of its first week we can look forward to a busy Christmas and hopefully the many businesses in and around the City Centre will see a much needed boost in sales that will carry them through into 2016. In 2016 all we can hope for as a Christmas present is a much bigger slice of the recovery cake and that all the headline promises we have read and heard about in our local media will be delivered by those making the promises.

Remember, it is very dangerous to over promise!

Waterford’s Four are now in election mode and are willing to promise delivery on projects that in truth should have been delivered months and years ago. No doubt over the next few weeks and months we will be endlessly bombarded with just how lucky we have been in terms of investment. So we really must ask ourselves if what has come our way is good enough or can be accepted as the absolute minimum that was needed to be delivered over the lifetime of the last Government. I would advocate that Government has under delivered for Waterford.

The simple fact is that more should have come Waterford’s way over the last number of years and we must all understand that any investment, that has managed to travel down the M9 from Dublin, has not been nearly enough and, yes, we may well sit at the top table but we are still feeding off the crumbs thrown to us and we have still not been invited to choose from the menu.

At the last Waterford Council plenary meeting, held in Dungarvan, the Council passed the Waterford City Centre Urban Renewal Scheme. A Scheme that will see circa €4,000,000 come from Government and circa €4,000,000 come from Waterford Council. Why ALL the money for the Scheme cannot come from Government I do not know!

The final meaty document contains all the plans, altered plans and reference to the 76 submissions from organisations, groups, individuals, businesses and Councillors – well 4 Councillors to be very precise.

Councillors Mulligan, Kelly, O’Neill and Daniels appear to be the only four Councillors out of our 32 good men and women of the Council, who seem to have been bothered to lodge a written submission. I will hazard a guess that many more will claim a significant input, behind closed doors, in committee, to this development document – but it would have been fitting for us, members of the public, to be able to actually read and dissect our Councillors input and observations, so that we can judge for ourselves the level of that input.

The final document is now done and dusted and all indications are that the work will start early in 2016 with the promise that no work on reducing car parking spaces will commence until the gas works car park is delivered – first muted for completion some 4 or 5 years ago!

During last week’s Metropolitan Council meeting we heard that the demolition for the North Quay was also done and dusted (again) and the work would start in the New Year. However, not many people will realise that we are to be left with piles of “concrete road foundation stones” of around 5cm square.

Swindon's Magic Roundabout

This substrate will be left on the North Quay until such times as it can be used.

The debacle that was the broadcast centre roundabout is now done and dusted. People power made all the difference and I have no doubt that this engineering master class has seen the Council receive the most amounts of complaints since records began.

It just goes to show that when we all work together mountains can be moved. Unfortunately, social media was almost instantaneously awash with Councillors claiming individual credit for what really should have been acknowledged as a remarkable team effort to turn around an experiment that a five year old Lego user could see would not work.

It is Budget time once again!

The 2015/2016 national budget is now behind us and we are just awaiting some last minute discussions in the Dáil, some machinations in the Seanad, and then the final approval of the Finance Bill, traditionally, sometime in February and then it will be all over for another year and it could well be the last budget delivered by the FG/Labour coalition as we move inextricably towards the promised “E-A-R-L-Y” spring election. Before we know it, it will be 2016 and we will all have forgotten about Mr Noonan’s last budget.

However, for us in Waterford, there is another budget looming on the horizon – the Waterford City and County Council budget.

As the Council begin to mull over their financial figures and projections for 2016, we are once again nearer the time for our Council Executive and our Council Representatives to vote on the 2016 budget, which will be somewhere around the €132,000,000 mark! It is a time for us to see how our representatives perform in what is seen by many as their most fundamental task.

Will the proposed budget be passed? Will we see pact voting? Will we see strategic voting? Will we see a genuine forensics analysis of the budget figures?

This is the time of year when our public representatives earn their corn and it really is a time of year when we hope that they will look at the bigger picture, rather than a parochial view of their own wards, and make the right decisions that will drive economic investment back into the City Centre and further afield across the whole County. Failure to understand the economics of making sound budgetary decisions will have a profound effect on how we perform as a City and County in 2016.

This budget sets out the Council’s spending plans for 2016 and also sets income targets on big ticket items such as the Commercial Rates collection which in the last budget was circa €32,000,000, it sets the household charges, car parking charges and all the other associated cost centres that will allow the Council to operate for the next 12 months. We will also see spending plans outlined and discussed such as the delivery of the Waterford City Centre Urban Renewal Plans, festival spending budgets, roads maintenance plans, housing spending and much, much more besides.

The headline figures for businesses will, of course, be the Commercial Rates collection amounts and whether or not these will remain the same, increase or ideally, for businesses to invest, these should be reduced by up to 20%. A rates reduction will encourage investment, will increase employment and will make for a better City Centre.

Alas, I feel that these will remain the same as the last two years and yet the brave decision has to be the introduction of a significant reduction to help struggling City Centre businesses. Any offset in the reduction of rates will be collected with new businesses starting up and a significant rates reduction will go some way to encouraging the retail brands the City is currently missing to invest in Waterford. In addition a better retail mix will drive increased footfall and this in turn will also encourage more business start-ups and these new businesses will pay their share in commercial rates. Win Win!

Another brave decision would be the reduction in car parking charges and, if the Council take the lead in this process, then the private owners have to follow suits. This is still the elephant in the room and until we tackle this issue we will find it increasingly difficult to encourage the people on the “Dunmore Road” into the City Centre never mind further afield.

I still wonder if, due to their free car parking passes, our representatives see the car parking as an issue or perhaps they drive around wearing rose tinted glasses.

After all, if it costs you nothing, zero, nada, nil to park your car in Waterford City and County why would there be a problem?

Unchained melody hits the wrong note!

Positive public relations (PR) for the City and County is an essential part of our marketing mix and is something that, as I have said time and time again, we ALL need to be aware of if we are to promote that City and County in a positive light.

The last seven to ten days have been filled with positive news stories right across the City and County. From the opening of the Lafcadio Hearn Japanese styled gardens in Tramore to the Medieval Festivals in the City and Dungarvan, Dromana 800 in West Waterford to the Promenade Festival in Tramore, Day Tripper concerts in Bolton Street and the Summer In The City musical treats in John Roberts Square and Wyse Park, (to name but a few) we really did have an awful lot to take in over the last seven to ten days.

And all of these events help create a general positive experience when it comes to making us feel better about our City and County and with the local papers full of pictures of our smiling sun drenched beaming pasty faces, eating ice cream, and attending these events, this creates a sense that we are all very predisposed to the upbeat PR messaging we are reading. These messages make us feel warm and fuzzy inside and that is good.

These most simple of generic PR messages have reinforced our knowledge that when all is said and done Waterford really is a great place to live, work and play.

The opposite side of the coin is of course how we might view and comprehend the mountains of self generated PR we come across on a daily basis.

For example, over the last 7 to 10 days we can also throw into the mix all the media and social media commentary on the appointment of the Mayor of Waterford City and County and the appointment of the Mayor of the Waterford Metropolitan area. And when we sit down in the cold light of day to review this messaging do we all believe that these types’ messages also show the City and County in the same positive light?

We have one Mayor serving the City and County (who chairs the main Waterford Council plenary meetings) and one Mayor serving the Metropolitan area of the City (who chairs the Metropolitan area Council meetings). This does of course lead to some confusion on behalf of, us, the members of the public and also leads to a number of protocol issues around who will or will not wear the ceremonial chains at this event and that event.

There is also another interesting PR dynamic that we will all see develop over the next ten months with both Mayoral councillors no doubt keeping one beady eye on the date of the next general election. Councillor Quinlan has already thrown his hat into the ring and I have no doubt the Councillor Cummins may well be contemplating doing the same.

With both of these Councillors in opposing political camps it will be very interesting to see who actually takes the lead in are

a of self generated PR and will the vast pages PR that each will undoubtedly generate be for the benefit of the City and County or the benefit of the individual?

Let us not be fooled as this process has already started and we have begun to see “the chains” being rolled out at this event and that event. The race has begun to stake a claim as a preferred candidate for the next general election and it will be most intriguing to monitor the progress of these two Councillors as they begin to position themselves with their respective party hierarchy.

So we must review and interpret the entire mountains of PR we read and are bombarded with on a daily basis and any messaging contained therein must be scrutinised and understood. We all must look at what we are reading and assess if this is, at the time of reading, relevant to “me” and if it is we will remember the context of what we read and therefore we will be more apt to regurgitate at a later date. If however, what we are reading is of no interest whatsoever to us we will conveniently forget what we have read and have no further interaction with the content of any PR article.

To be able to be interactive with any PR that we come across it is important that it is of relevance to us and perhaps more importantly it is vital that what we read connects with us and therefore plays in some way with our senses. PR will take us through a whole roller coaster of emotions and cleverly written PR will drive home specific messages that will become pertinent to us time and time again.

For Waterford City and County to continue to exponentially grow in importance within ALL of us we must keep reading positive PR messages. Messages that are not about individual self promotion rather messages that are about the greater good of Waterford Inc.

Remember to read between the lines to get the real meaning of any PR.

Everyone must be a brand Waterford Ambassador!

I attended the decommissioning ceremony for the Irish Naval vessel La Aoife. This vessel is in fact twinned with Waterford City. The ceremony took place at 15:00 on Saturday 31^st January, at Forde Wharf, in the presence of the Minister of State at the Department of Defence Paul Kehoe TD, Rear Admiral Mark Mellett DSM, friends and family of the many crew members (past and present of the La Aoife) and many other dignitaries too numerous to mention.

I also spotted representation from the 1848 Tricolour Celebration Committee, Waterford Business Group, Waterford In Your Pocket as well as many of our very supportive local media.

Maybe due to the absolutely bitterly cold wind blowing right down the Suir Estuary, making my eyes run constantly and preventing me from wearing my kilt, that I failed to notice any significant representation from our 32 Councillors. I did see the City and County Mayors (we have two Mayors in Waterford) and two additional Councillors, but very few others. I understand that there was Mayoral Civic Reception held the night before but surely the decommissioning ceremony, in the presence of a Minister of State, with national TV coverage should have been attended by a significant number of Councillors and not the scattering I and many others noticed and commented on?

It was also great to see RTE South East, with Damien Tiernan and his dedicated crew fighting the elements, filming the decommissioning ceremony and managing to get the whole service from the cutting room floor to being broadcast on RTE Six One News only a few hours later. Well done to all.

You simply cannot buy the sort of publicity and branding the La Aoife has generated for Waterford City. The La Aoife has been one of the City’s greatest ever ambassadors and we owe a great big thank you to her last Captain Marie Gleeson, and her dedicated crew, who worked extremely hard behind the scenes to ensure that the La Aoife was decommissioned in Waterford City and not Cork.

We must also acknowledge the work of Councillor Eddie Mulligan who in his capacity as a new public servant and in his role with the Naval Reserve (Waterford) also worked away in the background to bring this vessel eastwards, away from Cork, for her final official ceremony here in Waterford City.

Over the last number of years the La Aoife crew have raised in excess of €35,000 for our hospital and this has been done without fuss or ceremony or publicity. We owe a huge thank you to all those who raised funds over the past numbers of years.

But what of our future relationship with the Irish Navy now that the La Aoife is decommissioned? Will Waterford City be twinned with another of the Navy’s newer vessels or will we simply be forgotten?

I do know that a number of official requests have been lodged and submitted requesting that the new vessel, Le James Joyce, be twinned with Waterford City once the vessel is commissioned later in 2015.

As we are all too aware “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray!”

So we ALL need to ensure that our relationship with the Irish Navy, as maritime City, continues and if readers are interested in continuing this relationship then please lobby your local TD’s and Councillors to ensure that the Le James Joyce does in fact become twinned with our wonderful City and we can continue to see the name of Waterford City promoted and literally carried around the vast seas that surround this island.

On Friday last I had the immense pleasure to spend some time with three Committee members of the Ballybeg Brick by Brick appeal. We got in touch with each other on the back of the Waterford Business Group organising its own fundraising night on the 28^th February, at Kilcohan dog track. The Waterford Business Group unanimously decided at our weekly group meeting to give part of the nights fundraising directly to this appeal. So coming along and support if you can.

The three committee members I met must also be considered as brand ambassadors for Waterford City. What happened in Ballybeg was nothing short of horrendous and yet only a few days later a committee was founded and action plans were being drawn up.

The appeal has been promised the earth, moon and stars by a vast number of political representatives and it will be the responsibility of those who have made these many promises to deliver and deliver within a timescale that is appropriate and suitable for Ballybeg. There are large numbers of community groups relying on a renaissance that must happen within a period of weeks and not over a period of months. The longer the rebirth of this area takes the longer it will simply be forgotten and the citizens of Waterford City cannot allow that to happen.

I saw a determination and drive in the three Committee members that tells me they will make sure Ballybeg rises from the ashes - just like the mythical Phoenix does. But this group will need help, encouragement, guidance, advice and much much more. It is everyone’s responsibility to be a part of the rebuilding process and I would urge that we make the regeneration of Ballybeg a good news story for the whole of Waterford.

In business every staff member is a brand ambassador for that business, whether they like it or not. Even when you are not at work you will always be associated with your company, business or place of work. Like the La Aoife, its crew, and the Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal committee we need to work very hard to create the right image and right impression if we are to flourish as businesses. This means being constantly aware how we act and more importantly how we deal with our customers.

There is absolutely no point in Waterford working hard creating a brand image of the City if once you come here you experiences something completely different. Good customer service builds your brand image and bad customer service destroys your brand image.

The businesses across Waterford need to be aware of their brand image and through better customer service we will build a better brand Waterford. In light of this the Waterford Business Group are providing FREE customer care workshops to members starting from Monday 9^th February and taking place in Lady Lane Library every Monday and Friday morning throughout the month of February. See www.waterfordbusinessgroup.com 

Finally, I often find that it is those who work hardest to make a project come to fruition that never seem to get the credit they deserve. Strange but true!