'I respect his opinion but I don't agree with it'

There was a tense exchange of words at  a recent meeting of Dungarvan-Lismore District over economic strategy. 

Councillor Joe O'Riordan (Ind) raised the issue of signage and branding at the previous meeting of the district but claimed that he was still waiting on a response. He had previously spoken about the 'Shop Waterford' branding and how it seemed to exclude Dungarvan and West Waterford. 

He said: "There was no official answer to what I said at the meeting regarding the quality of the signage, the content of the signage and matters arising to Facebook posts not promoting Dungarvan and West Waterford."

Director of Services for Planning, Corporate, Culture, HR and IS Ivan Grimes rejected the Councillor's assertion about the signage. Mr Grimes brought up comments made by his predecessor Claire Hartley in regards to the economic branding. He said: "You're perfectly entitled to your opinion. It's not one I share. I thought the response provided by Claire Hartley at the March meeting, in which she resolutely defended the branding of the economic department, I think that is a sufficient response."

Cllr O'Riordan responded: "Forget about the branding of Waterford, but we're talking about the other issues that are affecting Dungarvan, the West and Waterford City.

"You take the festival grants, for instance, you take the grants focused totally on Dungarvan, Comeragh and Waterford City, you find that the breakdown is almost €1 million. You have 85% going to festivals in Waterford City. Dungarvan gets 10% and Comeragh gets 4% so I don't accept for one second that the branding is in anyway effective for Dungarvan."

He added: "I hear a lot of waffle about strategy and alignment between Dungarvan and Waterford. It doesn't work, we're 30 miles away, we're a separate environment. I accept the district manager's opinion, I respect his opinion but I don't agree with it."

Funded by the Local Democracy Scheme