Phoenix: A history of delivery
Taoiseach Simon Harris pictured with Prof Veronica Campbell, SETU President, in March when it was announced that agreement had been secured for South East Technological University (SETU) to purchase 20 acres of the former Waterford Crystal site. Photo: Mary Browne
You will have read a letter from Waterford Fine Gael chairman John Fitzpatrick in last week’s paper justifying that party’s local investment record since 2011.
It was long on history, referencing flood defences, court house, fire station, St. Patrick’s Hospital, Waterford Greenway, Primary Health Care Centres etc., which predate this current government.
Welcome staff and budget increases in UHW were also mentioned.
These have long been acknowledged here, although UHW still has the lowest staff and budget of the nine national Model 4 hospitals. The last major construction there was the Dunmore Wing in 2018.
The North Quays development is a standout, albeit late arriving, but is not the panacea for the issues that impact our city.
To better understand Mr Fitzpatrick’s position, he could supply us for publication with a detailed list of government capital projects initiated in Waterford since 2020, with their commencement dates and the monies allocated, with comparisons from the current huge Programme for Government.
Anyone visiting Limerick or Galway recently will have seen massive strides made in the three key areas of acute medical investment (hospitals), third-level education (universities) and Foreign Direct Investment (jobs). They were once our peer cities. Does Waterford Fine Gael believe we have kept pace with those cities over the past five years?
We have certainly moved on from the dark days of 2008/11, but have we kept pace?
Fine Gael recognised in 2008-2011 that Waterford city needed a university. They promised it. On election, with two TDs, they reneged and failed to deliver. Where WIT was then almost on par in student numbers with UL, DCU and Maynooth, these colleges now have multiples of SETU Waterford numbers and have had massive expansion of student and educational facilities.
After 2011, physical development of WIT teaching facilities and course development halted. A new engineering building and business school, both part of a 2009 PPP with outline planning, were cancelled in 2011, even though third-level buildings in other cities went ahead. Five new buildings were built in Carlow IT since then, none in Waterford.
Limerick and Galway now each have a large traditional university and a Tech Uni. Waterford has one-third of a Tech Uni on the Cork Road. How can that be justified?
The word Waterford was removed from the panoply of third level as if tainted. How anyone can claim that humiliation as a victory is beyond me. However, confidence must be rebuilt.
SETU has an excellent management team in place, but without investment they are powerless to progress the nascent university. In 2019 permission was again granted for a new engineering building and planning obtained. Five years later, with that planning on the cusp of expiring, construction has not commenced.
Mr Fitzpatrick includes private sector work on the old glass offices in his apologia as if it was state investment, but this sleight of hand merely confuses local innocents. In truth, Government bought 20 acres from Noel Frisby for €3 or €4m after horrendous delay, justified by nonsensical claims of “rigorous procurement procedures”. In reality, to placate Fine Gael interests in Carlow/ Kilkenny/ Wexford.
Local farming members of Fine Gael will have bought hundreds of acres for more money in a fraction of the time.
WIT was cynically played on this issue.
Even now, when we are told that a further announcement on the proposed engineering building is “imminent” all Mr Fitzpatrick can offer is that Senator Cummins is working to ensure that the PPP is signed off “as quickly as possible”! Don’t rush lads!
Taoiseach Simon Harris pledged last week to "get the job done for Waterford", saying "We have so many exciting projects we are going to deliver - better cardiac, investment in the university, Waterford Airport. We're going to get the job done for Waterford."
Mr Harris was directly responsible for the delay in advancing the new engineering building while Minister for Further Education by not including it in the first bundle PPP in 2020. He barely advanced cardiology services at UHW while Minister for Health, giving the belated go ahead for the second cath lab in 2018 while overseeing subsequent grotesque delay.
Mr Harris should stop promising and deliver on his own commitments.
Minister Mary Butler, Fianna Fáil, meanwhile, has politically announced an expansion of UHW cardiology services on several occasions. It has not happened, because the HSE has failed to publicly substantiate her claims. It’s imminent, just like the failure to deliver a paltry sum to our small airport. Imminent too?
The construction of a surgical hub at UHW may be providential for Minister Mary Butler and underpin (somewhat) acute capital investment there, although major projects still await delivery, but SETU Waterford lags dramatically behind strategic university investment in other cities.
Taoiseach Harris promised Waterford that real investment would follow the creation of SETU. That has not happened. No new buildings or new courses have been sanctioned.
Promised expansion, including a School of Veterinary Medicine and a Department of Ophthalmics has not happened, even though these would be a great fit for Waterford.
Sanction for student accommodation, borrowing requirements and professorial structures have not happened, nor has the proposed new engineering building.
A promised STEM building on the glass site has evaporated. Taoiseach Harris was Minister for Further Education since 2020. These developments were and are within his gift.
In the last months of a five-year government, no one on this column or paper gets any pleasure (or makes any apology) in highlighting political delivery failures to Waterford. How nice it would be to be lauding those responsible for proper, timely delivery, instead of them continually being “a day late and a dollar short”.
How uplifting it would be for everyone to see construction on SETU Waterford sites on the facilities that will develop and grow this city and its future, rather than begging in the dying days of a Fine Gael government for delivery.
The national media continually refers to the Taoiseach’s gift for communication. Might we suggest to him and to his local and national organisations that Waterford has had enough communication and would, instead, welcome delivery on commitments long given.
Mr Fitzpatrick and his local organisation really need to call out their Taoiseach and government rather than berating this column.
