A voice in the wilderness?

Listening to former Waterford TD Martin Cullen being interviewed last week, post-election results on WLR, the Paul Simon/Art Garfunkel song. 'The Boxer', came to mind. 

With some modification, it could be Waterford’s anthem.

Cullen, a great TD, was emphatic that Waterford City has simply not done as well as other Irish cities in the past decade and a half. 

Can you find anyone who disagrees with him, North Quays or no North Quays? I can’t! The lack of investment is palpable. Sinn Fein got two TDs elected even though their vote declined by almost 6 per cent. FF ran one candidate because of the perceived weakness of Mary Butler in the city. Had a second candidate from the east also ran, Ms Butler might have been unseated. Cullen was severely critical of the lack of 24/7 cardiac care at UHW. 

This is the third election in which this was an issue and it still has not been delivered. The Government parties got away with it…again! 

In recent weeks there have been four, close shave, emergency patient transfers to Cork. When will this disgusting charade end?

FG ran a one candidate campaign with a single aim - get John Cummins elected despite the absolute paucity of delivery from FG over the past decade. Cullen suggested that this one candidate strategy (electoral cowardice/failure/shrewdness of FF and FG?) opened the door to SF and cost Shanahan his seat. 

We’ll be poring over that for a long time, but the question is, who in opposition will hold Government’s feet to the fire in the Dáil for Waterford, now that Matt Shanahan is gone? 

Sinn Fein? Hardly likely, given their performance in the last Dáil. Who will speak up for us? During the election campaign, local media carried a news item 'Permission granted for expansion to pharmaceutical plant'. This was welcomed on social media by Government representatives as "yet another strong sign of Waterford's ability to not only attract large scale investment, but to nurture relationships with large employers over the years". 

Well meant apparently, but the Council’s planning website showed that the expansion is a small, single storey, room. Comparison with last month’s announcement Eli Lilly, of another $1billion expansion in Limerick, bringing their total investment there to $2 billion, doubling the investment announced in March 2023, is deeply chastening. Something is deeply amiss with the IDA, FG ministers for enterprise and Waterford…..? $2billion investment!

What is objectively clear to any reasonable, objective onlooker is that Waterford city trails the other four cities of the land in state investment terms. Dublin and Cork are obviously way out of our league, but onetime valid comparisons with Limerick and Galway, are now increasingly fanciful. That is undeniably true on any metric, albeit, as ever, denied by FF/FG. Yet that message did not fully resonate with the electorate. “People hear what they want to hear” ? It is incredibly hard to grasp that Government parties ran (and prospered) for election on the delivery of things which were promised several elections ago: airport, hospital, university, N24, N25, the port. 

All are deficient in infrastructure and await vital capital funding. Matt Shanahan banged the drum on these issues for five years. Did the message percolate through Déise craniums? Again, it is nearly impossible in my experience anyway, to find a person, anyone, in Waterford city who believes that we get a fair share of state investments. 

Yet we listened again to the promises, the repeat of the same tired promises made repeatedly over the past three electoral cycles and voted for FG and FF. Have we "squandered our resistance for a pocketful of mumbles such are promises”?

This column’s 39th anniversary passed on 8th October. 

The column owes its genesis to the publication of the Bannon Report on a “University for Waterford” in 1985. This led to the foundation of the Waterford University Action Group by Labour Mayor, Liam Curham. That was the third, at least, such action group founded after 1936 seeking a university in Waterford. The Bannon Report, commissioned by Waterford Chamber of Commerce, sparked a long campaign in which WRTC was upgraded to WIT and SETU was created in 2022. It was deeply dispiriting to see election posters from Sinn Fein ('Don’t get left behind Waterford') around the city mentioning our airport and 24/7 in UHW. 

There was no mention of SETU Waterford or the need for investment there. Is it OK to be left behind on third level education? 

Does SF not regard third level as important for the families and children of Waterford? 

Was this a deliberate policy from on high not to rock the regional boat lest voters in Carlow/Kilkenny/Wexford be offended? 

Pre-election comments about SETU were denigrated by FG as “running down our university” as if the tone deaf irony of failure to invest in new teaching space in 15 years had not run down WIT enough. 

Self –evidently, SETU does not enjoy the same investment, independence or courses as the national universities.

It may eventually attain that gold standard. 

SETU leadership under Prof Veronica Campbell is determined it will.

If substantial investment arrives quickly, many concerns will be eased. 

Otherwise, same old, same old for another fifteen years perhaps?

Waterford has too often seen the political party system smother initiative, investment and development here. 

But, “people hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest”? 

Waterford has just voted on things that were promised two or three elections ago. This column is still referencing the same major issues as five and ten years ago. Shanahan was an independent, capable voice in Dáil Éireann speaking for Waterford. That voice is gone. 

The baton has passed to M/s Cullinane and McGuinness. 

Let’s see what happens.