“Terms and Conditions Apply!”

So Frances Fitzgerald finally fell on her own sword. Not before putting up a huge, behind closed doors fight, with her Fine Gael colleagues. There was even talk about her “Having something on Leo?” Nonetheless, he remained so steadfastly on the side of “She has done nothing wrong and let’s wait for the tribunal, before judging her!”

The trouble was, that Leo’s pantomime Dames were also told, in no uncertain terms, to get behind their Tánaiste. “They’re behind you!” The spin was “Innocent until proved guilty.” Then more and more, leaked emails started to appear. Evidence against the Minister was mounting, indications being that Frances knew more about the shenanigans surrounding Maurice McCabe, than she was willing to tell the Dáil. Had she convinced Leo, she was no Panto Baddie, no Wicked Witch?

Pressure mounted on ALL concerned, nobody wanted a pre-Christmas election. The hustings were awash with threats of rebellion. There was no festive cheer. The door knocking over the 12 Days of Christmas, was without doubt, going to be a complete and utter disaster. It would be an election date of infamy.

Joy of joys. Two Tuesdays ago Frances did the honourable thing and tendered her resignation, at the very, very, very last minute. Talk about leaving it late. She took the Government and the country right to the wire.

There must have been terms and conditions attached?

Sure enough, only a few hours later, the now ex-Minister and ex-Tánaiste received the full backing of her party. She stood for and was nominated, as the FG candidate for the next general election in her Dublin Mid West constituency. I have no doubt that a future ministerial role has been pencilled in, if FG are returned to govern.

Scroll forward a few days and on Thursday 30^th November, Scotland’s St.Andrew’s Day, Minister Simon Coveney, can’t believe his luck. Accepting the position of Tánaiste with alacrity. Have absolutely no doubt, he has attached his very own “Ts and Cs” to keep FG and FF happy. Will we see a third budget, as promised in the Confidence and Supply Agreement? “Oh yes we will!” Well, only time will tell.

 

Then out of the blue, the terms of reference are announced, by Minister Simon Harris, for the National Review of Specialist Cardiac Services. We’d rub our magic lamp and Waterford’s Lotto numbers would come up. We’d scoop the Euro Millions jackpot. Professor Nolan would lead the review that would once and for all, deliver the South East’s cardiac services.

Alas, yet another false dawn, I am afraid.

The terms of reference, are once again, comical, laughable, and even “Wishy-Washy”. They are quite evidently worthy lines for a pantomime Dame. “Oh NO they’re NOT!” the Government shout. “Oh YES they are!” we shout back.

An unbelievably long, drawn-out timescale of 12 to 18 months. Hello, we might all be dead, by the time the report comes back to Minister Harris! At least the can has been well and truly kicked down the road, for the next Government to fight Waterford.

Then, we see the now obligatory photo shoot, appearing all over social media. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am sure that some, maybe even all, are trying very hard to deliver our very basic health service rights. But when you see only three TDs pictured with the Minister, is it any wonder that this South East “Crisis”, is seen by those in the Dáil as wholly Waterford’s conundrum?

Could I produce a few more TDs from behind the Minister? “Abracadabra”, I shouted, but without my magic lamp to rub, no more appeared.

There are 158 TDs in the Dáil, yet only 3 turned up for the launch picture. That represents less than 2% of the total number seated in Dublin. If all 19 regional representatives had shown up, that would have increased the proportion to 12%!!!!

Or to put it another way. I win €1,000,000 on the Lotto and offer a lucky reader the chance to get 2% or 12% of these winnings. €20,000 or €120,000 – what would you choose????

Percentages matter in Irish politics. It’s very simple. The bigger representation you have, the greater the slice of the pie - Ts and Cs always apply. 

“Rotten apples – we’ve a barrel full of them!”

“Surprise Surprise”, as Cilla Black would once have said. Leo “The Limelight” Varadkar has with all the Wisdom of Solomon, decided to give his full backing to his embattled, beleaguered, Tánaiste, Minister Frances Fitzgerald. In many ways, he is very quickly becoming our very own version of the “Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher. He is very clearly “Not for turning!”

Over the last few days, right across our national media, he has repeated the same mantra, time after time, after time. He will, come hell or high water, not throw out, sack, dismiss, get rid of, abandon, or ask her to resign.

As a result, there has been nothing but incessant talk about a possible general election before Christmas. Come on Leo, we have barely had time to recover from “Trick or Treating”, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Winterval starting and the switching on of our Christmas lights. We were all beginning to feel at lot like Christmas and with one fell swoop, you have with your Scrooge “Bah humbug” attitude, put back the misery in our hearts.

If you follow through with your hard line Maggie Thatcher attitude, you will do nobody any favours. The Irish public do not want another general election and your aides, spin doctors and political advisers MUST be telling you this. Even Santa Claus, is probably writing a letter to you as we speak. You’ll be placed at the VERY TOP of his “Naughty list”, if you continue with this election threat.

I for one, don’t wish to see any politicians this side of Christmas. We want to greet carol singers knocking at our doors and not political activists, pushing regurgitated 2016 fake election promises into our face. The mood of the electorate is no election this side of Santa’s arrival. Yet once again, you seem to be ignoring the wishes of the very people who gave you the keys to the Dáil.

It now transpires, that not only did your besieged Tánaiste ignore an important email, a senior official in her department, also appears to have taken a phone call as a follow up to said email. An email, which was very conveniently forgotten by the Minister, despite the content being the hottest gossip in town.

For sure, we all make mistakes and errors of judgement, however there is a feeling that a select few are now trying to give us the run-around. Are we, the public, once again being treated like the dirt on one’s shoe?  

When this current Government and FG came to power, there were undertakings that favouritism and cronyism would be a thing of the past. That was OLD Irish politics, they said. Then Leo seized power. Grabbing the limelight and promising that there would be open transparency never seen before, in Leinster House. He very quickly rolled back on that pledge. We are now in the midst of a whirlwind of corruption, sticking two fingers up to the people of Ireland.

I am not sure there is ONE good apple in our political barrel.

Our members of the Dáil, are quite clearly prepared to do everything it takes, to greedily grab more power for their own gain. Long gone are the days, when you would throw your hat into the political arena for the betterment of your constituency. It has become more about “What’s in it for me”, rather than how can I make a real difference to the lives of the people of Ireland?

I would quite happily blacken ALL political parties with the same brush. No matter what they say in public, behind closed doors they are all the identical. All from the same malevolent gene pool. Opposition parties promise the earth, moon and stars to be elected. Yet, when and if they get in to power, their election manifesto, turns out to be a wish list, nothing more.

Will we be going to the polls before Rudolph et al, deliver Santa to your chimney, ready to sip his now customary malt whisky or even whiskey? I for one hope not.

I secretly think, that the political glitterati also wish to avoid a GE. Are they perhaps accruing a few more months on office, whilst augmenting their sizeable pensions! 

Are we lacking in political talent?

Over the last few weeks many, many column inches have been written, relating to our Junior Minister John Halligan’s recent faux pas. Thus, widened the debate further, as to whether or not Waterford has the political talent to actually make a difference to the City, County and wider South East region.

If you look at our neighbouring counties, the numerous political “Big hitters” across our borders are well publicised. These TDs are aligning themselves for significant portfolios in the next Irish Government, be that 2018, 2019 or 2020.

Waterford’s long term hurling foe, Kilkenny, have a five seat constituency. Both FF and FG will probably be targeting three seats in the “Black and Amber” county. Out to the “Wesht” we have the super constituency of Cork. The two main parties of FF and FG are well aware that this very large geographical area is a key battle ground. Eighteen seats are available, across the various compass points, Tipperary has five seats on offer and so does Wexford.

We are quite literally surrounded, by much bigger political sharks and that in itself is our greatest challenge. The main two parties and probably SF, albeit behind closed doors, see the Déise as fish bait. Nothing too important and far enough away from Dublin headquarters to ignore....most of the time.

We have seen economic report after economic report shelved, or used to prop up wobbly old desks or used as doorstops, in dusty corners of Leinster House. From a rushed “Talk Talk” report, delivered by Richard Bruton and announced on WLR FM, during “Winterval on Ice” outside broadcast, in December 2011, to the most recent South East Economic reports. These have all come and gone. They have all been launched with much razz-a-ma-tazz, promising a subheading of “This is the one to fix our woes!” Yet many, many years later we are still stuck in the same Groundhog Day.

Our latest golden ticket promise of a “Proper” cardio review, has now been found wanting in the terms of reference. These by all accounts having been by-passed by our own TDs apparently, they are now arguing the terms need to be changed? The bigger questions is, is it just the four Waterford TDs asking that these be changed or are our political neighbours doing the same?

Surely, 4+5+5+5=19, makes a more powerful argument than the lone voices of four individual party members?

Despite the rhetoric surrounding the apparent working together on the “Three Sisters” bid. I do wonder, will we ever persuade the likes of Kilkenny, Wexford and adding in Tipperary, to really support the betterment of the region. The TDs in these neighbouring constituencies see themselves as THE regional players and do not wish to bow down to Waterford. They do after all have significantly bigger population centres and more TDs in the Dáil.

So what of Waterford’s political talent pool? Do we have the right people in Dublin to persuade our hostile neighbouring tribes to support the Déise? Well at this moment in time that would appear to be a big fat NO!

We have two TDs in Government. One has decided for some unknown reason to become John Ford’s “The Quiet Man” and our other Junior Minister the complete opposite. You know you have made it as an Irish politician, when Mario Rosenstock satirises your every move!

With two TDs in Government you would think that we would have some chance of succeeding. Alas, like so many of the reports that have gone before, their promise has been fleeting and ephemeral.

Will Waterford ever be a political force in Dublin? In truth that probably won’t happen, unless we return three, yes three, main party TDs. Or better still four from the same party! This of course, will not take place as we are voters of habit. Come election time we tend to vote the same old way.

We do need our current elected representatives to pull their socks up, whatever happens in the next year or two. They must start meeting and dealing with our “Hostile” neighbours.

They meet regularly themselves. Maybe now is the time to invite a few more to their tea party?

Our poor Ex, Ophelia!

You spend all your life preparing for the big moment. Practising and practising for all were worth. Constantly repeating the mantra “Correct practice makes perfect!” Growing and growing in size and power for that one spectacular entrance. You had “One chance, just one chance....” Your family and friends were watching expectantly. The media were gathered in ever increasing numbers.

Then, just as you started to approach Ireland, to become the first hurricane “On record”, those weather people downgraded you to an “Ex-hurricane” and changed your name to “Ex-Ophelia”!

Alas, we were still hit pretty hard - we all know the damage an angry “Ex” can do!

I spent early Monday morning clearing the last few wee bits and bobs in our walled garden. Hoping that this stoutly built barrier and our, luckily, North West facing aspect would be protected by the house. Well that was my thinking anyway. At the time of writing Ex-Ophelia was just starting to show her teeth and starting her relentless march into Waterford City.

There was the odd ping of debris, hitting the office window and trees were shedding leaves like no tomorrow. At least Winnie The Pooh would have been happy, “I don’t mind the leaves that are leaving. It is the leaves that are coming...” he famously said. Describing the avalanche of autumn leaves falling around his house. Come Tuesday morning, there will probably not be a tree in Ireland wearing any autumnal colours. Leaf blowers becoming redundant in Ireland this year, as Ex-Ophelia’s sorcery being supreme.

No doubt some brave and foolish souls, had ventured out to get that once in a lifetime, danger seeking selfie. Holding their camera phone tightly, to stop it being blowing away in the wind. Better still, trying to keep one of those ridiculous stick things steady, to frame the perfect storm. These selfish people put the lives of our emergency services at risk and getting that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter shot is not worth the jeopardy.

At least Ex-Ophelia has taken all our minds off a rather weak and non-eventful Dolly Mixture of a budget. Paschal “Use the Force Luke” Donohoe and his fearful leader Leo “Darth-Varadkar” had to cancel their budget road trip to the Sunny South East and Waterford City. Many had thought that, on this very voyage the dynamic duo would announce the loosening of the exchequer purse. Finally delivering, with no strings attached, the circa €61,000,000 for the infrastructural works, for our Strategic Development Zone, on the North Quays. Trust me, that auld rumour mill was working overtime last week.

 

Our Ex certainly put a BIG stop to that!!!

The Government cavalcade is simply going to drive right on past Waterford. No doubt heading off into the Wesht! Maybe they’ll find their way back to us on the return leg of the road trip? Och, how silly of me. I forgot they don’t have the satellite co-ordinates for Waterford City, do they?

In many ways, the story of ex-hurricane Ophelia could be a metaphor for Waterford City and County. The promise of something spectacular coming our way. The delivery of a game changing impact project for the whole population. A big announcement that will fix our economic woes.

We have waited and waited. There has been promise after promise broken. Deadline after deadline missed. Goal posts being moved at every single opportunity. Ministers and TDs ducking and diving, to avoid the eye of the storm. We always seem to end up with a downgrade. Something more palatable to the constituents of the people in power and yet little or no use to the people of Waterford.

It looks like we may well have to sit and wait for considerably more time, to encounter our first hurricane on record, to grace these shores.

Here’s some late, late good news to finish. Last weekend the magnificent Nationwide Team (with Brian and Suzie) were back in Waterford, filming a full programme with Waterford Camino Tours. The show will air in the spring of next year and will be hosted by the elegant Mary Kennedy. We really are so very lucky to have such support, for our City and County from this flagship RTE programme.

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!

Our catheterisation laboratory is still “Missing In Action!”

As the temperature dropped, quite dramatically in the last couple of days, we left the Summer behind and Autumn began to colour our lives. Not before one last hurrah in Waterford City. Our Harvest Festival celebrated “All things foodie” in this South East region.

The Terra Madre Slow Cook Festival organised, by amongst others Donal Lehane and Donald Sutherland (not the actor), was looking to expand, develop and “Grow to the next level”. I was CEO of Waterford Chamber of Commerce at the time and remember this festival’s origins. I jumped at the chance to bring this fledgling festival under our wing, help nurture it, allowing it to mature into the festival we love and recognise today.

A suitable committee was formed, with great support from Waterford Council. Harvest Festival stretched almost the length of our waterfront quay. One kilometre of food offerings, stalls, entertainment, educational classes, GIY conferences and even a petting zoo. The very best of our region, the “Breadbasket” of Ireland. It was a huge, roaring success, if you can recall and the finest in my opinion. Bringing enormous numbers of people to Waterford City, looking to sample or discover something new, to titillate their taste buds.

It is not only the Harvest Festival that has been a “Last of the Summer Wine” distraction. There were plenty of other events taking place, in and around our county to entertain us.

There has been a diversity of sporting achievements. Our magnificent young (youngish Mr “Brick” Walsh) hurlers’ odyssey to Croke Park and of course Waterford FC chasing promotion back to their rightful place in a Premier League. Lots of charity fundraising events such as the Donal O’Connor Memorial Cycle, the De La Salle GAA annual fundraiser, then last weekend I “Chased a Duck” all over County Waterford!!!!!

We have read more and more Census 2016 information telling us, here in Waterford, what we already knew! Our unemployment is still proportionately far too high, when compared to the national average. Third level uptake is ridiculously low. We don’t use public transport and our disposable income is one of the lowest in Ireland.

The promised North Quay Strategic Development Zone project is still according to our Council Executive, on stream. Waterford Council has now applied for the €60-70,000,000 funding needed to kick-start this “Once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity!” We are also reading through social media spinners, that this twin-development game changer will bring untold opportunities to Waterford. There has even been talk of a cable car type gondola, across the River Suir and up to the old hotel site on the hill. Just how we will get adequate visitor numbers, to sustain such a development economically, is yet to be teased out or convince a bank to lend a developer the money!

All of the above are just some of the headline grabbers, which have been a welcomed distraction for our holidaying TDs. Whilst we have been “Enjoying ourselves” the pressure to deliver some very key pieces of infrastructure, has de-escalated.

Yes, we were fittingly reminded of what we are missing, by our “Gentleman” hurling manager. In Derek McGarth’s Monday homecoming speech, he talked about the City and County’s urgent need for a catheterisation laboratory and a university. Our Minister was within earshot, sharing the same stage with our successful hurlers!

Governments are skilled experts in constantly kicking cans down the road. Our missing catheterisation laboratory was promised far too long ago and yet still no sign of its arrival. I live within a stone’s throw of UHW, passing it every single day of the week. I hope like so many others, one day soon I will see this now mythical unit, appear in its grounds, opening its doors to reduce much needed patient waiting lists.

The sense of urgency for Waterford seems all but lost on our representatives. Surely during their long summer recess, they should have been getting together? Formulating a proactive, real-time plan, to loosen Exchequer pursue strings, before the next budget.

Collectively, we must ask them just what have they been doing, whilst away from the Dáil, to ensure the delivery of the catheterisation laboratory?

It would appear that our promised, part-time laboratory is not the only thing “Missing In Action”, in Waterford.

Who is listening? #awaitinganotherreview #missinginaction

We are being heard, but no one is really listening!

Now, there is a very distinct difference between hearing and listening.

When you hear something, your ear is quite simply picking up and perceiving a particular sound. If you remember your Physics classes in secondary school, you hear and then your brain interprets those sound waves and vibrations.

Listening on the other hand, is a conscious effort to choose what you want to hear. To do this, you must concentrate on the messages you receive and understand them. Many of our senses are involved in listening and the result is more often than not, an immediate call to action. Whether that be a fight or flight response, or a simple “Yes, I am listening” response, to when Mrs Garland asks you about housework, when Scotland are playing rugby, on the TV!

Many people get these two completely mixed up. As a result, there are far too many people assuming that other people are listening to them, when in fact they are only barely being heard.

It would seem that the root of many of Waterford’s current woes and problems, stem from our inherent inability to get Waterford’s message out to the wider public and those in power. We do enough shouting and we are very good at getting people to listen on a local level. Outside of that very narrow boundary, we do not seem to be able to get the right influencers to listen to, appreciate and grasp our case. This of course has been happening to Waterford for many, many years. When we do eventually connect to the island’s consciousness, we are thrown the odd crumb, an appeasement for another few years. M9 motorway, case in point.

Could we learn from other regions?

It seems that we continue to climb our Everest, unaided, unsupported and without oxygen, whilst others are gaining copious help. Many, many Sherpa Tenzings, considerable quantities of that essential life giving odourless gas and base camps supporting the treacherous ascent. The result is that “Regional Development”, and I use that phrase very lightly, is given to those who are able to make people listen to their plight and struggles.

For some reason we just seem to be an irritating background noise, annoying far too many “People in power” and “Influencers”. This can even be heard and seen, across the world of our terrestrial broadcasters. Ask them to highlight Waterford’s current health problems, third level educational issues, unemployment struggles etc and to a man and a woman they seem disinterested. It is almost as if they have not listened to our messaging. They are only hearing an irritating buzzing in their ears.

It is clear that we need to change the way we are engaging with people on a national level. Our regional issues appear to have become solely Waterford issues by the time they reach Leinster House. Thus, diluted and diminished on impact.

Yes, a lack of political clout and Ireland’s love of parish pump politics does not help our case. But we should surely become just a bit more tactical in our campaigns? To gain Dublin’s ear?

It might be time to get our national broadcasters to sit up and to give more than a few seconds to our many issues. Of course the sixty five million dollar question is “How?”

Maybe we could take a leaf out of Fianna Fail’s recent social media campaign, #askfiannafail, and ask them to deliver for the region? Maybe this hashtag should actually read #askalloppositionparties, if we are really to get things moving?

Or better still we could just #askfinegael, as they are in power and we do have two TDs, who form part of this current Government. We even have a Junior Minister in Waterford. Of course I forgot, one is #missinginaction and the other is #awaitinganotherreview.

Our other option is to #takethefighttoDublin. I have heard people talking about taking a 90-minute protest to Dublin. #driveslowly or #blockthetolls on the M50! This would get us noticed. But would we be listened to if we were to take such a direct approach?

We clearly have an awful long way to go, #tobelistenedto. 

Finally, for the weekend ahead "Happy 25th Birthday Spraoi!" Looking forward to the fireworks display and parade. #Spraoi25

What if Simon says “No!”

We have already seen the appalling decision made by a certain Simon H to conveniently disregard the highly respected Higgins report on University Hospital Waterford (UHW), in favour of his own Government’s Herity Report. A Report, which we were told, if the readers can recall, was merely a formality. It was a very simple matter of ticking a few boxes, crossing some “T’s” and dotting a number of “I’s”. This would confirm what we already knew. That a second Catheterisation Laboratory for UHW should in fact be delivered, funded and built, ASAP.

But, we now know that we were sold a pup.

The second lab would not be forthcoming and to appease those Deise hordes, it was announced in Dublin, that a mobile unit would be diverted down the M9, to UHW and used to take up the “Slack”. Unfortunately, this mobile unit cannot, at the moment, seem to find its way to Waterford. To add insult to injury, this unit would be “Shared” with other just as needy regions. A big kick in the teeth to us on this matter, from Simon H!

But there would be light at the end of our dark tunnel.

We could, in the short term, forget not securing a second Catheterisation Laboratory, as good news was in fact, just around the corner. Waterford in recent weeks, has bounced back, in a big way. Wonderful, joyous and fantastic news that a €300,000,000 development of the City’s North Quays, would categorically take place, with investment of many, many Middle Eastern Riyal. In fact we would get TWO retail centres built for the price of one – happy days are ahead.

This news, in conjunction with the 2040 National Planning Framework, announced by Minister Simon C, would see accelerated development of our Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), to help double the City’s population. At last we could collectively take a breath and it now looked like Government was listening to the people of Waterford. They were actually going to put their hand in their collective pockets, to find some much needed fiscal money, to feed our economy.

Just like London buses, a third piece of good news landed on our doorstep. That hotel on the hill had finally been sold. The promise of a five star development, garden rooftop bars, largest function suite in Waterford, conference space....the list was endless.

Were we finally beginning to turn the corner? Waterford was surely on the up, or are we?

Amid much whooping and hollering we have to remember that to develop our North Quay’s SDZ we need Government money. Some say €50 million, but in Ireland that probably means that what is needed could well be in excess of €60 million, possibly €70 million. This loosening of the exchequer purse strings will not be easy. It will not be without its challenges and rest assured the political “Flat cap” clout from other regions will be doing their very, very best to divert this money elsewhere.

The bottom line is, that unless this money for the earmarked infrastructural work in our SDZ is not signed, sealed and delivered by Government. Where is this money to come from?

Waterford Council certainly do not have the funds, or the means to allocate anywhere near this level of funding. I suspect that our nearest neighbours in Kilkenny and Wexford will not be too much help either? So we are once again relying on a Government whose track record in supporting Waterford INC is to say the very least sketchy.

We have recently had one Simon saying “Yes” and one Simon saying “No”. A bit like that game we used to play as kids. An outcome completely randomly based on chance. 

Does Simon C really want Waterford City to stand any chance of doubling its population, for the betterment of the whole of the South East? Will he really get Old Father Time (Noonan), to open his dusty wallet and find €50/ €60/€70 million for this City?

The very recent delivery record for Waterford has been extremely poor. The onus is on our Junior Minister, 3 TDs and 2 Senators to now earn their stripes. 

There is much to look forward to, in the coming weeks and months!

This unseasonably warm, dry weather, does not alter the fact that we are still in Winter! Whilst you may well have the odd Daffodil and Crocus, poking their colourful heads above ground to say “Hello”, there is every chance that we will shortly return to colder weather. Not by all accounts, such cold weather that marks February 2017 as the coldest since records began, but colder weather all the same.

Not that I wish to be too grumpy an old man, as Spring will be with us very shortly and there is much to look forward to, in the City and wider afield.

The City Council, as previously written about, have given their support to nearly 80 festivals and events. This is in addition to some excellent initiatives, such as the one that has currently been encouraging people to visit our museums on Sundays for free, up to the end of February. If this has been successful, in terms of drawing the crowds, then it might well be considered worthwhile to run again, later in the year.

Our next big City event, is of course the 1848 Tricolour Celebration, which takes place over the weekend of 3^rd to 5^th March. The event culminates on Sunday 5^th, with the now traditional Flag Raising Ceremony on The Mall. In attendance will be a significant military presence, with accompaniment from some of our very best local Waterford musicians. But, prior to this happening, there are plenty for other themed events to look forward to.

An exhibition on Thomas Francis Meagher in the Central Library, combined with an Irish Defence Forces recruitment day. A comprehensive schools’ educational programme, which will bring TF Meagher to quite literally thousands of school children, focusing on the true meaning of the Green, White and Orange colours of the Flag. A Gala Dinner taking place in The Granville Hotel on Saturday 4^th, with a not insignificant representation of overseas guests to the City. Perhaps the “Main event” will take place early, on the afternoon of Saturday 4^th. Nearly 100 re-enactors will participate, in probably, the largest period re-enactment, circa 1916, taking place in Ireland this year. During the 20 minute choreographed performance, there are sure to be many hundreds of blank rounds being fired!!!

Following rather rapidly on the back of the 1848, will be the City and County’s St. Patrick’s Day parades. The largest of these processions will snake its way through the streetscape of the City Centre and finish on The Mall. We will once again see all manner of clubs, social enterprises, commercial floats etc on display, on what I always remember, as being a rather cold day of the year. It is just such a pity that the crazy, nutty world of Health and Safety has prevented the “Madder floats” from swelling the conga line, due to incomprehensible third party public liability costs!

Guaranteed, our St. Patrick’s Day parade will take our minds of the soon to be FG leadership challenges. Which one assumes will happen, after all the Ministers have had one last jolly. A jolly to pastures green, monuments green, in fact everything green, in some far flung foreign land.

Once St. Patrick or St. Patty, as they call him in the US (why do our Yank cousins insist on calling him this I have no idea!), has gone to bed for another year, we can start to look forward to many of our tourists arriving in Waterford. They in turn can look forward to exploring and discovering Ireland’s Oldest City, The Greenway and Comeraghs.

From the end of March onwards, we can get stuck into a full programme of Festivals and Events. Then there will of course be your own favourites. I am looking forward to the likes of Sproai, West Waterford Festival of Food, Harvest and of course my particular favourite The Sean Kelly 160km Tour of Pain, Suffering, Mental Torture, Agony.......and FUN!

So, if the political rumblings of a FG Leadership challenge send you to sleep, there are so many more events on the horizon to keep you awake in the coming year.

Thanks to Kevin Pim for the video footage which is from the 1848 facebook page; www.facebook.com/1848Tricolour/videos/1340576525985437/ 

Lashings of Ginger Beer!

I was lucky enough to return to the local airwaves last weekend and appear on the panel of WLR’s Maria McCann’s Sunday review show, known as “The Week”. My fellow panel guests were Brain Swift and Tadgh Williams. I also brought, to share, some salted caramel cookies, which appear to have been a favourite of Maria’s – future guests please take note!

Some say I have the perfect face for radio! What I do know, is that not only do I appear to sound like Shrek on the radio, with my retreating hairline I am beginning to look, well facially at least, like the big green ogre as well!

The review of news from the week that was, was lively, direct, straight talking, humorous (I hope) and expertly directed, as usual, by our host Maria. During the review we discussed many topics and subjects. Naturally we also talked politics.

A challenge was laid down to our four sitting TDs and our newest Senator – our very own “Famous Five!”

The Famous Five were of course a series of children’s adventure books, written by Enid Blyton. The Five in question being Julian, Anne, Dick, George and of course George’s dog, known as Timmy.

These Five would get together in the County of Dorset. Every summer holiday recess, upon returning from their various boarding schools dotted around the country. Embarking on many an unlikely adventure in the twenty plus books penned by the author. No matter what difficult challenges lay ahead, these Five would inevitably succeed and do what was necessary to “get the job or task done!” There was no second guessing, they just rolled up their sleeves and literally got stuck in. With a vim and vigour that would put most adults to shame.

Their adventures would later make our silver screens in the mid eighties as a Channel Four spoof series, from “The Comic Strip Presents”. Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Peter Richardson would play the lead roles. This tongue in cheek homage to the original stories would parody Blyton’s books and in a cruel twist of modernisation they added racism to the children’s characters, sexisms and even managing to incorporate some extremely right-wing political views!

With our continued regional position at the top of the third tier of Ireland’s economic recovery, supported by the recent quarterly figures, showing a rather alarming 12.5% unemployment rate across the South East region. Radical thinking is needed in order to drag Waterford, kicking and screaming, and the wider south east region out of the malaise that we find ourselves in.

It was with this background, that the panel on Sunday’s radio show came up with the novel idea that perhaps, just perhaps, we could ask “Our Famous Five” to come together and champion the three, four or five key economic issues/drivers for Waterford, and the wider region?

To do this they would have to ditch the dinosaur party politics that have failed us and come to the table, to work together, for the betterment of the City, County and ultimately the wider geographical region. A region that has once again been left short of a full Ministerial Portfolio, from the cabinet shuffle and therefore we will still be feeding off the occasional crumb thrown to us from the top table!

This type of giant step political thought needs bravehearts and committed political resolve to barter a better deal for the very electorate that put an “X” on the ballot paper way back in late February.

Richardson, Saunders, Edmondson & French.

I would happily facilitate and take the chair at this meeting. In my capacity as Chair of the Waterford Business Group, with no political affiliations or, being apolitical in this instance. When we see other regional TDs banding together and racing ahead of Waterford and the south east, we need “Our Famous Five” to step up to the plate and I am happy to help get this ball rolling!

“A clown needn't be the same out of the ring as he has to be when he's in it.” Enid Blyton.

Jobs, jobs, jobs......but really how many?

You just knew that there was a jobs announcement on the way when FOUR Ministers turned up in Waterford City at the start of last week. Like London Buses you wait forever for one to arrive and then four arrive all at once, and before you know it they are off again tearing away at breakneck speed. However, as RTE were covering this jobs announcement it was going to be a very safe bet that some of our senior people from Dáil Éireann would turn up. But I have rarely seen such a large number of Ministers descend on our City so there MUST have been good news in the offing.

The jobs announcements last week are most welcome for Waterford City, Waterford County and of course the greater wider SE region. With Eishtec expanding into Clonmel they must now be one of the largest employers in the region, if not Ireland, with circa 1300 employees. And to think that this company literally rose out of the ashes of Talk Talk a number of years ago. With centres in Waterford, Wexford, Craigavon and now Clonmel this business is on an upward curve.

I still vividly recall the announcement that Talk Talk was to close in Waterford City. This after all was a very profitable company and a company competing very favourably in what is a very demanding and tough market sector. The Talk Talk closure affected the whole SE region and I remember after the closure collating stats to aid sourcing training grants and I was amazed by the numbers of people this company employed right across the region. This was a prime example at how a Waterford City based company created employment throughout the whole SE region.

In addition to the Eishtec news we heard of jobs being created by Bluefin, a company created from Red Hat, which was formally known as Feed Henry. A success story from TSSG, and there have in fact been many recent success stories from this operation and I have no doubt that there will be many more. The TSSG and ArcLabs resource in the WIT Carriganore Campus are literally beavering away creating ideas and future employment. It is a facility that should be more loudly promoted and championed for Waterford City.

As you can read I am extremely positive about any new jobs announcement for Waterford and the wider SE region, though I often do believe that there should be more emphasis put on the actual jobs created and not the projected jobs that might be created. We live in the present and it is present jobs that Waterford and the region require and future jobs are encouraging but far too often the larger number is always produced simply, I feel, to make the announcements “beefier”. After all every single business could project a future employee statistics but just how many of these claims are actually attainable or measured for that matter?

I assume that we are “sold” the value of the IDA’s investment based on these projected figures and I also assume that “grant aid” is based on said larger figure. Though due to the sensitive nature of IDA client discussion we will never really know what grant aid companies actually get or receive. There is no individual breakdown outside of the IDA so it is impossible to find out or estimate. It would be interesting for bodies such as the IDA to release a comparison showing whether or not these projected figures are actually attained or bettered, then we would know if we were getting value for our tax payers Euro. We know that to attract FDI here the IDA have to work very hard and they, I assume, have to be very creative with their grant funding and each FDI get a bespoke grant package that suits their own business model.

The creation of jobs is to be welcomed at all levels but more importantly for Waterford and the SE we need to realise jobs that create enough disposable income so as to have a positive effect on our localised economy. At the present moment in time the SE has one of the lowest disposable incomes in Ireland and that is not good for our economy no matter what spin you place on this argument. The very low disposable income is reflected on websites such as the Pobal Deprivation Index that clearly show Waterford and the SE need jobs that reflect higher wages and therefore higher disposable income spend.  

It is quite simple. If you have €50 of disposable income available a week you can only spend €50 of your disposable income. However, if we all had €500 of disposable income available every week then we would have a burgeoning local economy and our “colour” on the Deprivation Index would be greatly different.

We are lead to believe that the current Government are the party of Small Business and yet I see on a day to day basis very little evidence of this on the ground here in Waterford. For SME’s there are no IDA grants, very little if any EI grants and other grants are difficult to access if your business does not fit a very tight and defined selection criteria. This has to change to allow SME’s to survive and ultimately employ more people, and more importantly employ more people and give them a higher disposable income to spend locally.

To date if you are an SME in Waterford, and the majority of businesses in Ireland are classed as SME’s, there is very little support for you in terms of accessing grant aid or business funding. Yet we see hundreds of millions invested into FDI’s, which is good, but is this at the detriment to others. Surely, we must see a balanced and regional solution to grant aid and ultimately investing in our City’s future. This is not happening and if we are to return “a party of business” to Dáil Éireann at the next election then we must start to hear and read about how they are going to secure SME’s investment funding for our City, County and the greater SE region.

Do we see this Government making it less expensive to run and operate a business? No! Do we see this Government pressing local authorities to significantly reduce Commercial Rates? No! Do we see this Government creating regional solutions that will help Waterford compete with other population centres? No! And yet come to Ireland as a multi-national and we will open our doors to you and give you grants, we will give you money and so on. Really the see-saw of support investment has to be balance and balanced in favour of small business.

Waterford of all the cities in Ireland needs immediate financial help, assistance and with an election on the way you might just see more and more bus loads Ministers coming down the M9/N9 to champion their case for election to the next Government.

Be wise in what you ask them and be even wiser in deciphering what they promise. Will we ever learn from history – well time will tell.

Why we need €100 million to fix infrastructure in the region.

I was fortunate last week to be asked to speak on Newstalk’s morning breakfast radio show with Ivan Yates and Chris Donoghue. My wife, Oonagh, took a call late on Wednesday night and directed one of the programmes researchers to call me on my mobile. I took a subsequent call during one of our weekly 1848 Tricolour Celebration committee meetings having recognised the number as a one of Newstalk’s generic numbers and having noticed a couple of earlier missed calls.

I dutifully excused myself from the meeting to make a return call, in private, from the Granville Hotel. The Thursday morning’s Breakfast programme was dealing with the latest announcement, by Minister John Bruton TD, of further Government income being directed to bodies such as the IDA for further regional development – yet another report it would seem!

Having commented before on Newstalk Radio I was told that the programme wanted my observations on the announcement, the report and as an Entrepreneur and founding member of the Waterford Business Group I was asked to give an honest commentary. As with all these types of pre-interview research processes you really need to nail your colours to the mast so that the researcher is impressed with your dialogue, the tonality in your voice, your clarity of speech and your reasoned arguments, and if they are happy they will recommend you for a live interview.

My interview was duly scheduled for 07:45 on Thursday morning.

During the course of Wednesday evening a number of texts were exchanged altering the times of the live broadcast to around 09:00. As always I was trying to be accommodating, but to complicate matters the 1848 Tricolour Celebration committee had arranged a press briefing and press launch of the 2015 events programme at 08:30 on Thursday morning. All the local media were to be represented including support from the Mayor Tobin and Waterford Council. As PRO of the committee I was under a wee bit of pressure to make sure the launch was organised professionally and also ran smoothly.

But as I have always said “Pressure is for tyres and turbos!” So roll on Thursday morning.

I arrived at the Granville around 07:45 to meet with the Chair of the 1848 Committee, Ann Cusack. Some last minute printing for additional information to be included with the press packs and I was good to go for the press launch and the Newstalk interview scheduled for 09:00.

Our guests started to arrive for the 1848 Tricolour Celebration breakfast press launch; The Munster Express, the Waterford Today, the Waterford Mail, The News and Star, WLR FM, The Independent, Mayor Tobin, Waterford Council and so on. Everything was running smoothly and on time.

Phone call from Newstalk at 08:13 – live interview will now not to go ahead. Relax. This would give me more time for the press launch.

Phone call from Newstalk at 08:44 – interview back on and scheduled for 09:30. Radio head back on.

This new live interview time would give me just enough time to arrange the necessary press pictures for all the media, a few WLR FM radio interviews and then give me time to slip away, find a spot where the mobile signal was excellent and more importantly find a quiet spot just in case I had to raise my voice.

I took my last call from Newstalk at 09:30 from the sound engineer. Two or three sound checks later and I was good to go.

I never like to over prepare for live radio interviews, but I do try to map out what I want to say in my head and I know the key points I wish to reinforce. I also try to pre-empt the questions I am likely to be asked. And having been on before with Ivan Yates I knew that he would ask one relevant question at the start and then ask me one or two other questions that would perhaps be slightly controversial, just to see if I would bite back. But above all I try to make sure that I can do an interview in “one-take!”

The whole interview took just 7 or 8 minutes.

I that time I was asked just three questions and having mapped out my responses in my mind I was very happy with what I said.

The jist of what I said was that for regional policies to work in Waterford we simple need €100,000,000 to spend on the infrastructure so sadly lacking in Waterford and the South East. We need the airport runway finished but not on a shoe-string, we need the extension to be built in such a way that it future proofs the airport for generations to come. We need the north wharf developed and the necessary infrastructure built so that his part of the City can become a silk purse and not the pigs ear we currently have to look at today. We need to deliver University status for WIT and this promise was in the Programme for Government (another report I have propping up my desk), but will almost certainly not be delivered in this Governments lifespan.

These three projects alone will finally put Waterford on the map in terms of IDA investors and will make the City, County and South East a better option for future investment consideration.

As a side it has always staggered me that as Ireland’s fifth City Waterford does not have University status. A tag that is universally known to stand for investment in research and development, and a tag that says to everyone that our City is one of the best in the World. It is such a shame that the youth of Waterford and the South East have to leave (as my daughter Saoirse will have to do) if they choose to go onto third level University education.

Once upon a time Waterford City was earmarked as one of Ireland’s gateway Cities. This was supposed to give Waterford a chance of additional investment, better third level attainment and so much more. That tag is now a dim distant memory and I fear that yet another half-hearted effort to develop this region is on the cards.

I believe that the solution to regional development is very simply. Give the money to people and businesses in Waterford that will actually spend the money on the right projects that will directly benefit the region.

Do we need to create a Waterford Development Agency? Perhaps we do. But in the meantime deliver €100,000,000 to Waterford and let the Waterford People make our City the economic hub of the South East – simples!

ENDS