Perception and reality

The work on the small plaza surrounding the Clock Tower is nearing completion.

It looks terrific. It’s another step on the way towards properly presenting the quays. Some people suggest that all car parking should be removed from the quays but pending the development of some sort of integrated public transport scheme for the city, there will always be a need for some parking. The answer probably lies in how it’s done. Where parking is broken up by planting and trees it looks far less objectionable than a sea of concrete. A recent Irish Times editorial was supportive of the proposed Dublin Metro North and with a possible investment of €23billion, why wouldn’t they? They also mentioned the need for light rail development in Cork and Galway. No mention of Limerick or ourselves even though Limerick is a substantially bigger city than Galway. Is it all about perception? Subsequent correspondence in that paper supported the Galway initiative on the basis that similar sized cities like Bergen in Norway had such a facility. The writer went on to quote the population of the Norwegian city as 250,000!

The CSO has the population of the western city as 84,000 at the last census. Limerick came in at 102,000 and Waterford at 61,000. The reality doesn’t matter because mandarin opinion in the permanent government is that Galway is “a good thing” and must be supported. I actually support the notion in general terms but reality must impinge. Our reality is a fight for everything. Has anyone ever heard of a protest march in Galway for anything? They rightly don’t have to beg and scrape for whatever is going. A planning application for the redevelopment of Galway Port, which is about one fifth the size of Waterford Port shows difference in perspective from those who expect to have investment pushed their way and those who live in the real world of political interference and embedded preferences. Galway Port proposes to reclaim 23.89ha as quays and back-up land and consolidated during construction and available for industries. 

The development will extend 935m out to sea, providing 660m of quay berth to -12m Chart Datum (C.D.) depth, serviced by a -8m C.D. channel depth with a -8m CD, 400m turning circle. There will be berthing facilities for general cargo vessels, oil tankers, passenger vessels, fishing vessels and container vessels. A western marina will be formed, providing 216 amenity berths as well as roll on/roll off facilities and berths for naval/research vessels. Price that if you wish. People in Foynes, which has its own €1billion expansion plans must be looking northwards to see what’s going on. The rest of us won’t be surprised to see learned articles in the Irish Times extolling the virtues of Galway Port expansion. If Port of Waterford raises its head and remarks that millions have been allocated to Cork, Dublin, Foynes and Rosslare ports while nothing is allocated here, our four silent TDs will have nothing to say. It’s a constant refrain.

Waterford was mentioned in an Irish Times editorial many years ago as the late Ollie Clery of the University Action Group used to relate. Apparently when the prospect of a full university for Waterford was gathering speed, the IT editorial pooh-poohed the very idea. Hardly surprising for the paper of record and organ of official Ireland, or else, maybe just playing to its loyal readership in the Dublin university scene? Older readers may remember when the US firm Digital closed in Galway that the entire cabinet was dispatched to the US to find alternative employment. They returned with the medical devices industry which now has a huge presence in Galway and saved the day. Au contraire, as Dell boy might have it, when Waterford Glass bit the dust in 2008, the government responded with crocodile tears and faux sympathy. The presumption against Waterford, which has extended to medicine and third level education as well as FDI, is well documented. 

The long wait for funding for medical and educational projects is symptomatic of an entrenched bias. The level of multinational employment, which provides Ireland’s best paid work, is still quite low in Waterford. The SEEM report highlights the deficit. It is widely rumoured in local business circles that a large US MNC came here two years ago seeking a site for a medical devices project and the IDA did not have a strategic site available in the city. The project went elsewhere. Of course there will be what a US politician called “plausible deniability” if you ask.

Meanwhile, our new pedestrian bridge looks resplendent and has already opened for some river traffic. It’s hard to believe that the council proposes to leave the bridge uncompleted at its Ferrybank end until the private developers link up with it. At the Salvation Lane area of Dock Road you can see how the bridge finishes well above the level of the surrounding docks. It effectively needs another bridge section over the docks and the railway to link with the dual carriageway. A temporary structure could easily be erected to allow the bridge to be used rather than having it hanging up in the air for possibly two years. Government did provide the funding for the SDZ North Quays and hopefully Harcourt Developments, the chosen developer for the site, will not wait much longer to commence work on their part of the North Quays project.

If anything, the Galway attitude shows us that we should not be wanting in ambition. Where they are perceived to be the third and sometimes even the second city of this republic (even Cork might admit that) we find it hard to rise above the babble of competing county towns. 

The decision this week by the Department of Health to (rightly) develop new surgical hubs in Sligo (pop 22000) and Letterkenny (pop 23000) says a lot about politics and political delivery in Ireland. As a resident of a city that has waited decades for a SETU engineering building and still has the poorest funded and staffed Model 4 hospital in the country, I wonder what is the civil service mandarin perception of Waterford? Is the massive opposition to the development of Waterford Airport instructive?