Hi ho, hi ho it’s off to....North Korea!!!!

Much of the news last week, focused on the announcement that three Irish TDs would be paying a visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). North Korea to you and me. 

Yes, that madcap totalitarian dictatorship, run by their supreme leader Kim Jong-un, will be visited by Ireland’s “Three Stooges”. Messers Ross, McGarth and Waterford’s very own Minister Halligan, will fly out, at their own expense, to the capital Pyongyang, we assume. To stop, in their own words, “The inevitable move towards war with the good old USA”.

This amazing story began last week. Just like many people, I immediately checked my phone, when I first read this, to see if it was the 1^st of April. I also checked that this was not a Waterford Whispers news story. Lastly, I even went online to look up The Daily Mail, that font of knowledge for ALL spoof news stories. Low and behold the oracles told me, that this was actually true!

This was not fake news, but a real and current, national news story. A letter has been penned and sent by Minister Halligan, requesting that this parliamentary Troika be allowed permission to visit DPRK. We can also assume that they have requested a meeting with Kim Jong-un, otherwise that whole junket, would of course be a waste of time. After all, you don’t ask the monkey to play you a tune on the organ – do you?

The justification for this visit is that “Larry, Moe and Curly” are, “a group of three prominent politicians in a country highly-respected around the world for its neutrality.” That’s a fair enough statement, but the word neutrality, can be very loosely defined these days, depending on which side of the fence you sit!

 

I would also be pretty sure, that Kim Jong-un’s school lessons, did not have so much as a sentence about Ireland’s standing as a world powerhouse, when covering global history. One could even hazard a guess that Kim could not point to Ireland on a world map. Much the same as many people wouldn’t have a clue where the DPRK sits, between the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan.

The thought that this Troika could do any good on the world stage just beggars belief. Does it not show contempt, for the very people of Ireland who voted these three into power? For “Huey, Louie and Dewey” to think that they represent some kind of World Peace Brokers, is delusional beyond anyone’s imagination.

Donald the Trump, is hell bent on giving Kim the bloodiest of noses. He has even taken his golf bats with him, to help relieve the monotony of his marathon tour of Asia. He’ll be visiting Japan, China, Vietnam, Philippines and South Korea. Do our three, secretly living, in their own wee world, see themselves on a par with other world leaders, never mind other politicians? It would appear that they do, which is worrying for us, their electorate.

Whilst our “Three Amigos” are plotting and scheming to save “Who?” from the El Guapo character, we are left wondering why they are so willing to apparently disregard their own people.

There are far too many pressing problems in Ireland and Waterford to list in this wee column. Currently there are 8,000 homeless people, with 3,000 of these being children. NO Cath Lab in Waterford City, to service the 500,000 people across the South East. University status for WIT appears further away than ever. REAL regional development is nonexistent. A skills shortage, in key industrial areas, that has been endemic for years. I could go on and on.

We have far too many current issues that these “City Slickers” need to tackle right here, right now. To think that they believe they are doing us a favour by going East, has all the makings of a slapstick film. I can see comedy writers bashing out scripts as we speak, on their Apple Macs.

Even if in some parallel universe, they succeed in getting an audience with Kim, they will NEVER get to see the “maniac” Donald. They quite happily burned that bridge last year!

Maybe they’ll meet the “Stay Puft Marshmallow Man” next?

“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!

All I want for Christmas!

If you have not written your Santa letter by now, you will be no doubt be waking up, on the morning of Sunday 25^th December, with the very real possibility that the bundle of presents under the tree are either not appropriate or are completely useless for you. That is of course assuming that you have been good during 2016. You therefore have been omitted from the naughty list and are due a visit from Santa in the first place.

Assuming that the majority of us are on the nice list, then we will receive some wonderfully thoughtful presents. We will no doubt be filled with the joy that giving presents also brings. We often forget that giving presents and gifts are equally important, if not more important, than the gifts we receive and this is often overlooked during the festive period.

I will no doubt wake up on Sunday morning and after saying “Happy Christmas” to the fairy on top of our tree, who this year is celebrating her 19^th year in the Garland household, hopefully I’ll find the requested pair of socks and maybe one of the more unusual bottles of Scottish malt under the tree.

As we get older the number of presents under the tree, the number of presents secretly hidden in the tree, behind sparkly tinsel and twinkly lights, diminish year by year. Even the number of cards we now post and receive, lessens each year – we are social media carders now! It is not that Christmas becomes less important as we mature, it is just that our family circumstances change, alter and we adapt to that transformation.

So what should we wish for when we look at what Waterford would ask from Santa?

I do hope, that those with the power and influence, to deliver for Waterford in 2017, have posted their letters in time for us not to be disappointed come early Sunday morning. If I had the influence to write and deliver that letter to Santa, here is what I would have asked for – not a very big list.

The Government is telling us the country is on the up and Ministers are stuffing their own constituency stockings with this extra cash. I would ask for €10 million to invest in UHW’s cardiology unit. Only circa €2.5 million needed to build the unit and circa €7.5 million to staff the unit for the next two to three years. Once it is up and running, the lives it will save, will justify all running costs.

Another €20 million to finally deliver and create a University for Waterford and the South East, including all the bells and whistles needed to attract students and increased research funding. Not a fudged, pressure delivered, hotchpotch multi-campus minestrone soup of an organisation, as being proposed by those in power. But a REAL University based and administered in Waterford City, which would clearly benefit the whole of the South East.

€25 million to develop our SDZ North Quay and Port, to drive a whole new tourism market for Waterford and the South East. If we could develop these two vital pieces of the City’s infrastructure, we could place Waterford City at the very heart of the “Ireland’s Ancient East” tourism project. Making Waterford City the 3-4 night destination stopover, which would be the anchor for exploring the whole of the South East.

Only €55 million and none of it would be in loans. This would go an awfully long way to redress the lack of focused investment in Waterford and the South East. We are at the moment seeing our hospital, our infrastructure and our third level education establishment, being ever so slowly dismantled and methodically stripped. If we are not careful these three essential pieces of infrastructure will disappear for good.

 

If we do not have strong political and public representation, fighting for every Euro of the Government investment pie, we will remain the City which always receives a present, that has been given to us as an afterthought.

Happy Christmas, hope you have been good! Happy St.Andrew’s Day as well. 

Boyle’s Law – life in a vacuum!

Lismore “Boy”, Robert William Boyle, was an inventor, alchemist, chemist and physicist. He was actually born in Lismore Castle, to the 1^st Earl of Cork. He led a privileged life and was sent to Eton College, England, to be educated at the very highest level and also spending time at Oxford. He published his own law, Boyle’s Law, around 1662. Because I paid no attention to “Big Jim Skull”, my Bell Baxter High School secondary teacher, I have absolutely no idea what use Robert’s Law does in today’s world. Or for that matter if I have ever used or come across his law – but I am sure I must have!

I do know that he worked with pressure, gases and vacuums. His worksheets, papers and books are all kept in The Royal Society archives. Vacuums were just great things, in the old chemistry lessons, and we all remember blowing up balloons, by sucking ALL the air out of that bell shaped glass vacuum.

We heard last week that the planning permission for the proposed Michael Street Shopping Centre development was also granted. Lecturer at WIT, Mr Ray Griffin, producer of a recent excellent WIT economic report on Waterford’s potential, was on WLR FM talking about the need for this development to go ahead. As we now expect, when we hear from Mr Griffin, he says it as he sees it, and he let the listeners know that we have been in a political vacuum for a number of years. This has contributed significantly to Waterford’s lack of actual real development.

Some might say that these were harsh words, however I totally agree with his accurate description. We have endemic problems that are not being addressed and until such times as we dig deep and see what needs to be changed, then change will not be made.

Whilst we are not living in a complete vacuum, we are to a greater extent, being pressurised by others, with greater political clout, to feed off the crumbs from the Department of Finance’s funding trough. But alas, we have been in the same political vacuum for many, many years and we do not seem to be getting any further forward? Are we just willing to accept yet another 3 or 5 years of others deflating our balloon?

Only a few months ago we heard that funding would be available for the airport, the hospital would get X, Y and Z, investment would be made in the City which would transform our economic future. The clock has been ticking very quickly since the last general election and now we have no more commercial flights in or out of Waterford Airport, the report on our hospital needs is now overdue, what is happening to our “University” bid and whilst other cities win European funding we are once again left wondering – “Did that really just happen!”

I cannot imagine Cork, Limerick or Galway standing back and accepting the same lack of funding that isn’t coming to the Sunny South East. We know that their political super heavyweights would simply NOT agree to anything else but the development of their City and Towns. They have political clout that is not affected by pressure and, trust me, they do not work in a vacuum.

Our competition box clever and fight for every Euro and cent that might just make their constituents’ life that wee bit better. They bang the table, have the ear of Kenny and Noonan, they threaten political revolt and have the cajones to barter a better deal for the very people that vote them into power.

Robert Boyle was a visionary of his time, with many, many sceptics who questioned his work and his findings. But Robert ploughed on regardless and is remembered as one of the founders of modern chemistry. 

Maybe we need to rekindle that “never say die attitude”, that Robert showed in his work, and make sure that we develop Waterford, not in a vacuum, but as part of our resurgent Sunny South East.

The last thing we need is another wee p*”@k bursting our balloon.

“Peace for our time!”

"It is peace for our time" the headlines would read.

As the country moves ever so slowly towards a minority Government, we have in recent days, seen much trumpeting from John Halligan TD and the promise of 24 hour cardiac care at University Hospital Waterford.

In addition, it has been indicated from Halligan, that there will also be good news for Waterford in terms of increased funding for Waterford Regional Airport. Changing the criteria to allow Waterford Institute of Technology to pursue a solo bid, if they so desire, for a change in status to a “Technological University”.

Like all these promises the devil really is in the detail and whilst Halligan has laid ALL his cards, face up, on the table he insists that 24 hour cardiac care is only a few “hearts beats” away. However, we have not actually seen sight of the piece of paper that will commit this rag tag minority Government to deliver what was one of Halligan’s election promises. 

Lessons from history show us that people in the public eye, particularly political figures, must be extremely careful what they say and promise. I can now see Waterford, holding its collective breath, waiting for that embossed, letter headed piece of paper from Minister Noonan and the Department of Finance, committing the circa €10,000,000, identified by Halligan, to finally deliver the much needed 24 hour cardiac care to University Hospital Waterford.

I do hope that Halligan has not made the cardinal error of “Doing a Chamberlain”!

On 30^th September 1938 the then British Prime Minister, returned to Heston Airport waving an A4 sheet of paper and declaring that after direct talks with Chancellor Hitler that there would be “Peace for our time”. History has shown that the letter signed by Adolf Hitler was nothing more than a tactic to stall for more time and to keep the Allies out of a direct conflict with Germany.

 All smiles & Benny Hill!

Chamberlain saw this as an opportunity to deliver for the people of Great Britain and boy oh boy did this back fire in the most monumental way. It is interesting to note that the plane in which Chamberlain retuned to London had an identification mark of G-AFGN – there are a few anagrams in there somewhere!

I know that Halligan has without doubt, had to wrestle with his conscience, consider his own values and those of his vast electoral base to have to “jump into bed” with a minority FG Government. It even looks likely that he will be given a seat as a Junior Minister when all the dust has settled. This decision I am sure does not sit kindly with many of his voters and in fact the vitriol across the various social media platforms last week was nothing short of shocking.

Many, I am sure are feeling betrayed and no matter how much spin is put out by the Halligan Camp, there will be some substantial fallout in terms of future voter support.

The caveat is of course, that if Halligan has secured the circa €10,000,000 funding and more importantly a proper structured plan to give the 24 hour cardiac care longevity for the South East, then we must all applaud his efforts and the labours of the many people lobbying hard in the background.

Halligan will no doubt be hoping for extra letters securing additional airport funding and that a resolution to the university issue will also be forthcoming.

TD Halligan

Time will tell, if the recent hyperbole of promises will actually be delivered for Waterford and I for one hope that the A4 embossed letters are imminent, so that we can start planning Waterford’s future.

If these three election hot potatoes are delivered by Halligan, before the end of the summer, then he must be applauded by everyone and even more so if he has had to make the impossible decision of, “Sleeping with the enemy”.

I do hope that the letters Halligan will eventually wave to the assembled media hordes, will deliver and there will be no anagrams in sight!

Is the excitement building?

The Waterford media was awash last week with various General Election candidates finally launching their campaigns, media profiles in our excellent local newspapers and of course the promise of some robust debating in a series of US styled pre-election public, or invitation only, debates.

Of course we will never really know what we are getting with the new untested candidates and all we can hope for is that their rhetoric will deliver in the Ronseal way – “It does exactly what it says on the tin.”

But I am not sure if these new candidates will ever get the chance to deliver on their promises as they will have an enormous, almost gargantuan, task of uprooting the existing established sitting TD’s.

It would appear that with the exception of maybe one TD change the people of Waterford may well have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. After all we are seeing, albeit exceedingly small, green shoots of recovery across the South East and this in turn can only benefit Waterford. 

When push comes to shove and you have a pencil in your hand, with the ballot paper in front of you, are you really going to vote for a political sea change that could in all likelihood make the hard earned Euro in your pocket worth less with the reckless tick of a ballot paper box?

Off and running.

I would hazard a guess that people will vote for some form of stability and a better the devil you know attitude. It may well materialise that we do not see wholesale changes in the political map and we will end up with many of the same faces returning to Dublin. Real political change takes an awful lot longer than the full term of a Government and new political parties take even longer to establish and gain suitable foundations to build an organisation that can challenge the norm.

Our “Frontier Ministers” have been recently waxing lyrically about Waterford’s strength as part of a growing SE economy and being at the very heart of a multi-campus “Technological University”, which now appears to be back on the radar just in time for GE16. I have no doubt that we will continue to hear about how working together is a sound economic plan for Waterford and the SE but in reality we are still very much a fractured region with very little in the way of a one direction plan.

Yes, working collectively as region is the only way forward but the half hearted efforts to date have seen the erosion of our hospital services, a nibbling away at our third level institution, boundary arguments that could have filled the plot of a wild west cowboy movie and the general lack of urgency on a gateway status have all hindered the delivery of a meaningful recovery across the SE.

In last week’s column I stated some statistics around the Gross Added Value (GAV) of jobs in the SE and the GAV figure is extraordinarily low and this must surely be of concern to all the registered voters in Waterford and across the whole of the SE.

If we cannot attract significant high end investment to Waterford at this moment in time when, as we are continually being told, we are an exceptional region for investment, then what will happen if we allow the continued erosion of our third level education establishment, the continued reduction in our hospital services and the public bickering on boundary issues.

We could and will continue to be a PR nightmare if these types of issues are not fixed with a cohesive and sustainable plan.

So, should we be excited about the upcoming GE16? Yes we should and we must do our bit to ask the hard questions and engage with the Politics, because that is just what we are not expected to do.

I guarantee that a few tough questions on the doorstep will either make or break any canvasser and it will probably be a surprise that you asked in the first place. Try it!

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.

My wee girl goes off to university....what the UL?

I, like many other parents in the last week, have been literally packing a child off to a third level institution. For me, as a first time parent to this process, I have found the whole experience both exciting and a wee bit apprehensive, if the truth be told. After all we do not know if the course or the institution will suit our children and all we can really hope for is that we have made the right decision and the right choices.

My daughter’s first course choice has taken her to the University of Limerick. A university that in 2015 won The Irish Times “Best University” award and as there are only a handful of universities in Ireland I can only assume that this award is shared on a rotational basis.

Having achieved and surpassed the entry qualification points we attended the “induction” or “orientation” day at UL on Tuesday 1^st September. The well travelled road to Limerick is a shocker and a poor reflection on a major trunk route between two of Ireland’s Cities. Two hours after setting off from Waterford we arrived at the stunning UL campus. Thanks to an American philanthropist this has to be one of the most impressive campuses in Ireland. All still relatively new and shinny, with lots of open space, sports facilities to rival any university, and the added bonus of being able to watch the odd Munster player training!

As I was to spend the whole day at UL I took the time to walk, explore and view every corner of the campus. The first thing that struck me was that it was so inspirational to see so many fresh faced young adults starting their next educational journey. There were literally thousands of students orienteering themselves on this day.

I also started totting up the positive economic impact of a university city and from the accommodation figures alone I worked out that around €1.8 million was being spent on the accommodation in my daughters block. This did not take into account any cost of living expenses, travel, entertainment etc etc. The UL campus is plainly generating tens of millions for the university and the local economy and Waterford is missing out on this much need annual cash injection.

For those lucky enough to be able to go on to third level education, getting to university is a very big deal and something that both student and family should be very proud of. I know that it was a day I will be very proud of and yet in the back of my mind I was annoyed that my daughter did not have the chance or the opportunity to go to a university in Waterford City! I have after all been in Waterford City for nearly fifteen years and I had hoped that this issue would have been resolved by now.

Is it not ironic that the City that is promoted as “Ireland’s Oldest” still does NOT have a university of its own?

What have we been doing for the last 1100 years!

The more the day went on the more I had time to reflect on why Waterford City has not yet been designated a University City and why my daughter and so many others like her, have had to figuratively emigrate from their place of residence to attend a university. I feel that it is a shocking indictment that so many are forced to leave and yet we do not hear enough about this annual exodus from our City and County by our own young and talented people. Once gone many will never come back and yes there are economics at play as to where or not they come back but at the very least we need to create a society where they have a choice.

Since returning from the orientation day I have meet so many other parents who feel exactly the same way and I am aware that this ongoing issue has been around now for decades and not just a few years.

Surely, we have to get this issue sorted once and for all.

I am in the camp that says a university in Waterford City would be good for the City, the County and the south east region.

There can be absolutely NO doubt that a University City is perceived to be a much better place to live, invest and educate. And if the existing education institution is worth its salt then moving from a college or a tech or an institute of technology to university status will be a good thing and will be something we could all be proud of. What we do not want is a fudged solution and I fear that is what may well materialise unless we once and for all get our collective act together. It still seems that those people who will ultimately have the final say are working with the “wrong types of bricks” – see last week column and blog!

Yes, our WIT is an excellent technological institution but surely we will ALL be better off as a University City. I do hear people championing and defending institutes of technology and giving shining examples such MIT (in the USA). But let us face facts we are not the US and we will never be the US, so we will never see another MIT outside of MIT.

This ongoing saga has seen many boards of management come and go at WIT and we must hope that the current board will deliver for Waterford when others have not, and that the current board will learn the lessons from previous boards when we were lead to believe that “This was the way to go” then all of a sudden “No, we need to turn full circle and this is now the way to” and so on.

The bottom line is that the clock is very much tricking and the longer we leave this issue the further down the road the ultimate goal will be. My own son is now in third year of secondary school and I fear that he too will have to emigrate to attend a university.

The current government promised a university for Waterford in the current “Programme for Government” and I may be wrong but to deliver on that promise between now and a General Election in April of 2016 seems to be fantasy politics.

Too many generations are missing out, our economy is missing out, and our City is missing out. Surely, this is not rocket science!

Quay to success lies in our City Centre!

North Quays artist impression.

I read with interest last week’s blanket coverage around the purchase of the North Quays by Waterford Council or the fact it has now been stated that the Council will take control of the North Quays – two completely different scenarios. What this actually means for the City and County will no doubt come out over time and as they say the devil is always in the detail.

Of course the development of this prime real estate has to be warmly welcomed and yet we are already reading proposal from various sources that this option and that option would be the best for the City. But what surely matters is that this area of the City’s infrastructure is developed rapidly and must also be developed in such a way as not to stop the critical and much needed development of the actual City Centre – the very heart of Waterford.

There were many attention-grabbing reports last week including, what I think was a ridiculous suggestion, that DIT should get involved in this process. Now where is the sense in that when we have our own WIT is screaming for University status and yet we have a Councillor wanting to involve a Dublin third level institute in what has to be a jealously safeguarded Waterford City project! The mind boggles sometimes.

Bustling market in the City Centre.

The North Quays could and should be one of the most attractive areas of the City and has to be developed for the benefit of the City, the County and the South East and it has to be selfishly developed in this order of priority.

It would also be worthwhile finally tackling the issue of Ferrybank and the complicated legacy of should this area be part of the City or part of Kilkenny. I would hope that there will be an announcement around this topic, in the near future, and again I would hope that the decision will be made for the betterment of the City, County and South East.

Developing the North Quays will of course bring the north side of the river back into the heart of the City if developed sympathetically and correctly. And as I have said this can only be good for the future of Waterford City.

But what of the very heart of Waterford City, its City Centre, which has in many people’s eyes been neglected from development for many, many years?

Can we justify spending or investing more money in the development of the North Quays without first of all redeveloping our City Centre?

We now know that the development of the Viking Triangle (VK) which has been welcomed but has the VK area driven the much promised footfall back into the heart of our City Centre? Have we seen the promised connectivity between the VK and retail core of the City? And have we educated tourists to stopping in the City for more than a few hours to ultimately staying a few nights in our City hotels and accommodation providers?

These questions must be answered before we rush to develop the North Quays. We have been quite rightly told for years that out of City development will not be permitted as this will destroy the very heart of our City Centre and yet we have failed to see equal investment support for the City Centre when compared to areas such as the VK and now perhaps the North Quay.

Blackfriars.

We cannot keep going on ignoring the fact that the City Centre needs investment, the City Centre needs to incentivise new retailers and the City Centre needs to have lower commercial rates to encourage retail and service industry investment. These plans have to be implemented otherwise we will see yet another area of the City be developed to the detriment of the City Centre. At a time when we need to be concentrating on creating the most attractive City Centre in Ireland and creating an experience that is uniquely Waterford focused will we be distracted by this exciting new project that has now appeared on the horizon?

There is limited funding available for every type of development and the simple fact is that we cannot be sidetracked and surely our priority now has to the City Centre’s development.

Without a vibrant City Centre we will not attract investment, we will not attract tourists, and we will not attract the people of Waterford into our City. The vivacity of the City Centre cannot be underestimated and when I walk in to the City at the start of the week or in the evenings and see just how quiet it is it begs the question “Have we collectively forgotten about developing OUR City Centre?”

The black fountain/obelisk does not work, the “car wash” on Broad Street has never worked, we have crocked lighting pillars in George’s Street, Blackfriars is very uninviting and so on and so on.

Purple Flag for Waterford City.

We have literally spent thousands of Euro investing in the Purple Flag initiative and thankfully this achieved an accredited award. However, the flag is flying rather limply now and this is in part due to a lack of external communication outside of the stakeholder group. Now is the time to bring home ALL our birds to roost and play to our strengths and deliver a City Centre worthy of this Purple Flag award. If we do not invest now in the City Centre we will very quickly come to the stage where we have deliberately created our own City Centre doughnut with an empty centre and lots of exciting opportunities around the periphery.

This course of action will over time once and for all “kill” our City Centre and there will be no recovery from such a doomsday scenario. If we are not careful and if we as citizens do not have our say then it may well be too late for all of us to see the genuine regeneration of the Waterford City Centre.

Waterford City South Quay at night.

In a time when there is so much pressure of inter-web shopping we must create a shopping experience like no other and we must give the very best service to every single customer that comes to Waterford. Until we are prepared to go that extra mile how can we expect others to travel ten of hundreds of miles to visit our historic City?

OUR City Centre has been crying out for urgent investment for a number of years and the money must be found to ensure the City Centre at the very least keeps pace with the VK and any proposed North Quays development.

Do we take the very innovative step of claiming back the South Quays as well and once and for all introduce affordable car parking to drive footfall back into the City Centre. This of course would be too easy and too simplistic – or would it?

Finally, we must all remember that without a healthy heart no one can survive!

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