Just where is OUR money???

We have heard many a local radio news snippet, over recent months and read countless column inches in our local newspapers, about the millions of Euros promised for Waterford’s infrastructural projects. These projects were to be “game changers” that would bring some parity to the complete lack of “regional investment” over countless numbers of years.

Yet, we are now, how many weeks on, from the last General Election and can anyone honestly says we have received a €1 towards these so called “game changers”? So many political representatives indicated that these would bankroll Waterford’s economic future.

The North Quay, where work seems to have literally ground to a halt. Due, I am sure, to engineering concerns around weight loadings on the old, frail and fragile “piles” that are precariously holding up the hundreds of tons of rubble. This whole area has been designated as a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ), which is good news and I recall that €30 million had been promised and earmarked, by FG, to develop the site and link it directly to the City Centre. That was over 16 months ago!

Has any of this money actually been drawn down, excuse the banking terminology and allocated to Waterford Council to start this much needed regeneration process? I don’t recall hearing or seeing any big media fanfare announcing that the “cash” had been lodged into the Council coffers. Therefore I have to assume that NO money has yet been received for the SDZ to start and ultimately flourish.

This same sad story can be repeated at the Airport. We were promised many Euros to develop that runway, allowing larger jets access to Waterford and the 500,000 people of South East region. But, once again, not one cent of this appears to have come our way. In fact we are now being told that money is available for everything else, but the essential runway extension!

In the meantime, the people of the South East are discovering that Dublin is now much, much closer and easier to reach. The M9 has not a traffic light in sight and with the Newlands Cross flyover, the journey time to Dublin is more than manageable and predictable. The east coast N11/M11 route from Wexford is also to a large extent quicker than days of old and when the New Ross second bridge comes on stream, we will have a choice of two very fast direct routes to Dublin.

I also imagine that the business case for a consistent, less than two hour drive from Dublin to Waterford, is now working against us. Many FDI investors have far longer commute times to work! So the case for a regional airport in the south east diminishes even further. This assumption seems to carry some weight when we review the fact that only circa 6 FDI visits have taken place in Waterford this year! We seem once again to be on the road to becoming a less attractive alternative to many other cities and regions.

There is the ongoing debacle around UHW – no need to regurgitate the shambolic mess that some have created here.

So, these three are examples of promises that have not materialised. Money that had been “earmarked” for Waterford and yet none, nil, nada, zilch, seems to have been paid to us, to start our economic recovery and get our City and region booming once again!

On foot of the non-delivery of these funds, we are hearing far too many of our political representatives scoring points against each other. Rather than working out just where this alternative money might come from, they spin the “if we were in Government line”.

Why do other political regions deliver actual real infrastructure investment? Surely, all politicians have the same access to identical Civil Servants, who might just be able to point them in the right direction, explaining how to loosen the purse strings.

We are systematically being downgraded and this will continue unless we see the promised Euros coming our way to stem the tide.

Sadly, we appear to have too many King Cnuts (more commonly know as Canute).

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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!

Time to paint the City Purple!

This weekend will be the official launch of the Purple Flag accreditation for Waterford City. But before I go on to write about the importance of this promotional project I must comment on the return of flights from Waterford City to, in particular, London Luton.

As you read this article we will have already seen dozens of flights take off and land between Waterford City and London Luton. It is great news to see VLM commit to the reinstatement of flights between Waterford City and London Luton. Luton is around 30 minutes from London St.Pancras International (which incidentally was the station used for the Harry Potter films) and it is then just a short tube ride from the very heart of London City. The timetable is now even more user friendly as you can depart Waterford City at 07:30 and return on the evening flight from Luton at 18:40. This of course does mean that you can pop over to London for a quick business meeting and be home at a reasonable time that evening. In addition we must also take into account that the airport is literally on our doorstep and the travel time back home from the airport is inevitably under 1 hour and that sort of convenience is worth its weight in gold after a long day.

We must also remember that it was only last December, at the final City Council meeting of 2014, that it was announced that the flights operated by BMI would cease in 2015 and for the staff of the airport to turn this negative around to this week’s huge positive news takes an awful lot of time, work and effort. So we must show our support for Waterford Airport and book our flights whenever possible out from Waterford Airport.

Is it the right time to paint the City Purple! Well the answer is of course a big fat YES.

As a Purple Flag designated City we can open a world of possibilities to create a City that will be appealing to new customers base and a whole new audience. Like the Blue Flag Beach accreditation the Purple Flag award for Cities and Towns will deliver certain standards for cleanliness, street lighting, safety, communication, nightlife, and so on. This a truly a collaborative effort that has been coordinated through the City Centre Management Group (CCMG) and supported by the Council, Waterford Business Group, the Garda, City Businesses and a wide range of stakeholders. It is a real chance to once and for all make the City Centre a vibrant destination once again.

And yes there are still issues around the retail mix, concerns around safety, the uniformity of late night opening hours, the cost of car parking...but this Purple Flag is a starting point from where we can ALL drive the City forward with a positive message. We need to talk up the City’s offering in order to attract new retailers, attract a greater variety of late night offerings, encourage a late night cafe culture (as we see across the whole of Europe) and above all we need to get our citizens back into the City Centre to start loving our City once again.

The brand that is Waterford City needs to regenerate itself and everyone must become that Brand Ambassador the City so badly needs. We all have our part to play and we all need to accentuate the positives rather than the negatives. And if you feel that there are issues, come up with a solution and do not just come forward with a complaint that can be posted anonymously across the ever widening range of social media channels. If you can contribute in a positive way then do just that.

The importance of the Purple Flag launch cannot be over emphasised and every business within the Purple Flag designated zone must do their bit to get the message out to their customers and the citizen of Waterford.

Yet getting this message out seems to have had varying degrees of success. I know that the Waterford Business Group have held an information evening and the Council did likewise yet the level of awareness is much less than it should be from a business point of view. How can you expect members of the public to be aware of the messaging if the businesses delivering that message are not clear themselves?

Clarity of communication messaging is something many business and organisation overlook or simply get wrong time and time again. When dealing with a stakeholder group the clarity of messaging becomes even more important and just because the people involved in a project are clear of the messaging it does not follow that everyone else “gets the messaging!”

I was very conscious at the start of this week that many of the businesses in the very heart of the Purple Flag area were not aware of the launch, were not aware of the messaging, were not aware of how they were to promote the launch weekend etc etc. It was clear that Purple Flag businesses have been visited but to what extent was there a conversation taking place with the business to enthuse them to get involved. I am yet to be convinced that enough time was spent delivering this messaging!

To remedy the lack of engagement the Waterford Business Group have taken it upon themselves to get out and “pound the street of the City Centre” and deliver some very striking purple belly posters to all the City Centre businesses asking them to give a Purple Flag offering for the launch weekend. You should be able to see A3 purple posters displayed in many shop windows this weekend promoting a Purple Flag offer or just recognising that the Purple Flag launch is taking place.

The communicating of messaging by getting bodies on the ground is without doubt the most effective way and is often the only way of delivering clarity of messaging. To see the human face of a promotion will undoubtedly get more buy-in and will also make the launch of the Purple Flag more personal.

 

So well done to Fly VLM and the Waterford Business Group for delivering more good news for the City, the County and the wider South East region.

Now we just need YOU, the people of Waterford, to support the launch, so make a deliberate effort to come into the City Centre this weekend and seek out the Purple Flag offerings. 

The wearing of Purple is of course optional.

Communication is the key to our success.

Over the weekend I watched in awe as the RBS Six Nations climax unfolded on the BBC and RTE over the course of Saturday afternoon. One dramatic turn after another and at the end of a marathon session of rugby indulgence Ireland were quite rightly crowned the 2015 Six Nations Rugby Champions and my beloved Scotland were once again to receive that much coveted Wooden Spoon Award. I now have enough of those blasted Wooden Spoons to build a log cabin in my back garden!

Then to add insult to injury and just 24 hours after the slaughter at Murrayfield the Irish Women’s Rugby team humiliated their Scottish counterparts and ooh joy of joys I was to receive my second Wooden Spoon of the weekend courtesy of Irish Rugby. The second award was of course made all the more palatable by the fact that the Women’s Captain is of course Niamh Briggs from Waterford, my adopted home.

It really was a great weekend of sport when on Sunday the Waterford hurlers secured promotion back to the top division and the lift that this will give the City and County cannot be under estimated.

I have always said that our various sporting achievements, locally, regionally and national do reflect our mood and to a larger extent our outlook. If we regularly celebrate sporting success then we are more likely to have a positive outlook for our place of residence and we are also more likely to celebrate commercial business success as well. If we have been hard wired to celebrate on a regular or annual basis then we will be more akin to beating that “drum of positivity”.

We only have to look across the recently named Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge to see that Kilkenny City (Town) and County oozes positivity. This is in no small part due to the phenomenal recent success of the hurling team and it is this positive aura that permeates right down through every citizen of Kilkenny. No matter how business is actually operating, good or bad, the business people and businesses of Kilkenny will always give the impression that they are doing exceptional well. This constant positive outlook certainly brings it own success and own additionality to Kilkenny and the City (Town) is a tourist trap for a huge percentage of overseas visitors. And remember that it was only in the late seventies that Kilkenny really decided that it would become the “Medieval City of Ireland” and as such would draw hundreds of thousands of annual visitors from around the world to visit its Castle and bustling retail sector.

The success of Kilkenny as a destination has mirrored the sporting success of the County and the many smaller club hurling teams that annual compete in GAA fixtures. Their own sports stars are seen as the envy of many and they are elevated to superstar status, and boys and girls throughout this County want to be the very sport stars they see week in week out on the playing fields. 

In business you need staff to fulfil roles and positions that best suit their individual talents and skill set. These must all be cohesively combined by the CEO, General Manager, etc into a “well oiled machine” with everyone knowing their place and function.

However, just how many staff members are communicated to effectively so that they know what is expected of them? How do they know if they are performing correctly? How do they know if they are contributing to the company’s profitability and therefore the company’s future stability? These questions are often left unanswered in many businesses.

Perhaps businesses that are clearly underperforming need to take a lesson from the likes of Schmidt and Cody. Both of these Managers are completely different people yet they both get the absolute maximum out of the players at their disposal. They evidently have two completely contrasting management styles yet both are achieving astonishing results on an regular basis.

What links the two men is their ability to communicate with those around them.

They both have an uncanny ability to get their message across, get their instruction out on to the field of play, get their game plan embedded into every player’s mindset and they always seem to have a plan B that can be turned on at the bark of an instruction. These two men are some of the very best communicators you will ever come across and there are many lessons to be learned from them.

Many businesses assume that their staff are fully aware of the function of the business, the role they play within that business and the contribution they make to that business. But the stark reality is that many businesses are very poor at internal communication. There is often no clear messaging route for staff members and there is more often than not no communication strategy for staff whatsoever. When a business is not communicating with its staff how can they expect that business to perform in the market place?

It therefore follows that if a business is not communicating properly with its own staff members then how can they be communicating correctly with their very own customers? Remember that every staff member is a band ambassador for their place of work and if they do not know what a company’s communication messaging is, then how can they be expected to interact on a one to one with a customer?

Many businesses spend literally thousands of Euros a year on PR and communicating strategies and yet forget to communicate these very messages with their own staff members. The result is a lost opportunity and more often than not confusion of messaging.

 

To get the very best out of our people we need to take a leaf out of the Schmidt and Cody book of management and put communication at the very top of our priority list when dealing with staff members.

A winning team requires clarity and communication of messaging and as Waterford looks to a more positive future we need to see a better communication of the positive messages from around our wonderful City and County.

Maybe I should ask Joe Schmidt if he would like to move to Edinburgh for a wee while, as the last thing I will require in 2016 is another bloody wooden spoon.

Flying the flag for Waterford.

I often have people asking me “What is going on in Waterford City?” and I also tend to get asked the following supplementary, “How come you know so much about what is happening in the City?”

The simple fact is that due to the nature of my own business, bizBoost, and the various groups and committees I am involved with I need to “have my finger on the pulse” to coin a well worn phrase. I go out of my way to read ALL the local newspapers, listen to the local radio stations, attend as many Council meetings as I can, keep an eye on the social media traffic and of course I make take time to meet and network with a huge volume of people. And it is when I have the opportunity to meet with people that I take time to listen first and then answer the many questions I inevitably get asked.

Today is Thursday the 19^th March and the last two weeks have shown Waterford City as a beacon of positivity and a series of one good news story after another. These stories have been covered by ALL our local media and across the various social networking platforms. But just in case you missed these here as some of my highlights of the last two weeks (in no particular order):

1848 Tricolour Celebration, covering the 6^th to 9^th March; over 110 guests attended a Gala Dinner on Saturday 7^th March in the presence of the Mayor, Minister Coffey, Ambassadorial representation from the US, Canadian and French Embassies, and members of the 69^th Infantry Division (New York). Sunday 8^th March 1500 people attended the flag raising ceremony on The Mall with musical accompaniment from the Thomas Francis Meagher Fife & Drum, Barrack Street Band and the Island of Ireland Peace Choir. All of these events were organised by the voluntary 1848 Tricolour Celebration Committee.

Naming the Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge; on Thursday 12^th March, in the presence of President Michael D Higgins, the Suir River crossing was formally named The Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge in a closed ceremony, in horrible weather conditions, in an area just off the toll plaza. This really was a mammoth team effort on behalf of the 1848 Tricolour Committee, and the Councils of both Waterford and Kilkenny.

Lions Club National Conference; over the weekend of 6^th to 9^th March the Tower Hotel hosted the National Conference of the Lions Clubs of Ireland. Over 400 delegates from all over Ireland and further afield attended this national event.

 

VLM announce flights from Waterford Airport; on Monday 27^th April direct flights from Waterford Airport to London Luton will resume. The new Belgium based airline will fly 12 times in each direction every week from April. These flights replace the FlyBe routes.

President Michael D Higgins is greeted by 1500 school children; on Thursday 12^th March President Michael D Higgins presides over the launch of Flag Week. A programme by the Thomas Francis Meagher Foundation to educate the Irish school children around the history of the Irish Tricolour and the connection with Meagher and Waterford City. Over 250 schools attended this event and each school received a Tricolour flag that was flown at 33 The Mall, Waterford City. This event was attended by a whole host of dignitaries and perhaps my abiding memory will be everyone, and I mean everyone, participating in a Mexican Wave!

St.Patrick’s Day on Tuesday 17^th March; we were once again witness to a magnificent parade on St.Patrick’s Day and full credit must be given to those who organised the event and more importantly a big thank you to those who marched in the parade. The Waterford influence was not confined to the City as members of Spraoi also provide costumes and support for parades in Dublin and Cork.

Glanbia opens €180 million facility in Belview Port; the opening of the state-of-the-art facility by Glanbia should contribute around €400 million to the Irish economy and will create around 75 directly related jobs and 1,600 indirect jobs. Currently Ireland produces around 10% of the world’s infant milk formula but the future hope is that this will rise to over 60% with plants such as the one in Belview coming on stream.

Ballybeg Brick by Brick Appeal gathers strength; over the last two weeks we have seen an increasing number of local events raising money for the Brick by Brick Appeal and money is starting to come in to fund for many projects that will rise out of the ashes. There is so much local support for the Appeal that it you cannot fail to notice the momentum this is gathering.

 

Waterford United hosted the Irish Football Manager Martin O’Neill and Assistant Manager Roy Keane on Thursday 12^th March for a club fundraiser with John Delaney also present. Over 200 people supported this event and efforts of the fundraising committee.

These are just some of my own memories of the last two weeks and I know that there are so many more good news stories out there as well.

Sometime we have to actively look for the good news and it is just such a pity that we cannot lead with good news stories ALL the time. As they say in the newspaper world “Bad News Sells Newspapers” but the good news stories make us feel much much better in ourselves and in our communities.

Waterford as a good news story had unprecedented local, regional and national news coverage over the last fortnight and just imaging if we could replicate that over the 52 weeks of a whole year. Attitudes to this City would change instantaneously and investment would flood the City, County and Region.

Good news stories do so much more for the moral fibre of the City we live in than the bad press we seem to always focus on. We are ALL responsible for finding those good news stories and promoting the good in our City, County and Region.

If we ALL ensured that we could regularly replicating the last two weeks of positive press coverage the City and County has received then Waterford City would in no time at all get back its rightful place as Ireland’s fourth City of the Republic. This in turn would lead to lower unemployment, better third level attainment, higher wages and so on. It really is a win win!

It is all about OUR positive attitude to make Waterford the very best that it can be and looking forward with a positive mindset is something we all need to do.

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose” (Lyndon B Johnson).

Thank you to Paul Dower for his photographs.