Phoenix: And then what?

The tariff regime proposed by Donald Trump has been unveiled. By the time you read this, he may have changed his mind. Who knows? Waterford people know that the tariffs will, if implemented, have an impact on us. But to what extent do chickens come home to roost? How much fat, if any, is there on our local economy? 

We know that in the rebound after the 2008 to 2011 financial crash Waterford city has seen a modicum of progress. After all, this is a nice place to live and work, attributes that always help, hence the fact that the local population is growing, but it is self-evidently true that Waterford did not benefit to the same extent as our onetime peer cities of Limerick and Galway. 

Comparisons with Dublin or Cork are risibly fanciful. A visit to our peer cities clearly shows the investment difference. 

We have a much leaner and narrower economy than them. 

Many readers have visited those cities during the past dozen years, on holidays or business. The difference is evident in industry and in education.

If you haven’t been, then go and look at UL or UCG. Objective reality is hard to confront and perhaps when we see it we don’t want to confront it? 

The hard truth is that Fine Gael and many who travel that road are deliberately blind to this city. Their government cancelled new WIT business and new engineering schools in 2011. That, and the subsequent Fine Gael failure to build anything at all at WIT in the intervening period, has done incalculable damage to the city, to the local economy and to our city’s ability to function as a regional centre. 

Still, the party was rewarded with a Dáil seat at the last election. Are we just politically naïve?

Many people were skeptical of Taoiseach Varadkar, a man of Waterford extraction, when he said in January 2024: “What we don’t disagree on, is that Waterford needs more investment. I can guarantee you that so long as this Government remains in office.” Why? Because he also said in July 2017: “Many in the city and city region feel that Waterford has fallen behind, has been neglected, even forgotten. And, it's not hard to understand why. This must change. So long as I am Taoiseach Waterford will not be neglected or forgotten. I say that not just because of my affection for the city and the county, or because of my roots here. I say it because the success of Waterford, in the decades to come, will be a litmus test for the Republic of Opportunity of which I speak, one in which every part of the country has an equal chance to share in our country's prosperity.” 

Yet in two vital sectors, education and FDI, the litmus test result is appalling. UHW has been funded at par but still lacks the resources of other Model 4 hospitals. The paucity of support for SETU/WIT over the past 15 years, while Carlow IT was stuffed with new buildings to satisfy the Carlow/Kilkenny/Wexford agenda, is particularly egregious. I choked every time I heard Fine Gael tell us that this was done ”from their own resources”! 

God help us, but the tooth fairy is alive and well. This was done to suppress Waterford and WIT ambitions for a university the same as UL or UCG. A quite deliberate and obvious policy, in the interests of Cork and Dublin educational hegemony and Fine Gael Wexford/Carlow/Kilkenny politics. 

In April 2024 Minister John Cummins announced that a tender had been received for a new engineering building at WIT/SETU Waterford. In December 2024 Minister Cummins announced that the government had sanctioned the development. We still await a commencement, but slow walking Waterford projects is a Fine Gael art form!

Last week, David Cullinane raised the failure of government to fund the N24 and give any indication of support for Waterford Airport. He has remembered that he is a Waterford TD. During the five years of the last government he was silent, to an incredible extent, on Waterford issues. Despite 20,000 first preference votes in 2020, he was abjectly silent on WIT. But then Sinn Fein has never been a friend of that institution. Did its election material in the 2024 election even mention it? Still we rewarded the party that did not speak our name with a second Dáil seat. 

To what end? They now point at the deficits and highlight them in the local media, but what are they going to do about them? When will Mary Lou call out the systemic failures to fund the airport, UHW and SETU Waterford in the Dáil for what it is? 

When will she be on national TV and radio demanding equity for Waterford?

Anyway, failure to fund our airport is incomprehensible. The tiniest investment would secure Waterford Airport but it is subjected to a government funding regime of abnormal severity, in order not to support it. 

It’s always amazing that delay is our fault, the airport board, the business plan, the financial arrangements, while the contemptible delay and endless process inflicted on us by ministers and their mandarins, is rarely questioned. Our government reps seem unable to make a stand for Waterford, being tied so firmly to their parties that independent action, heaven forbid, is impossible, and now, with the Trumpian tariffs, and cries for “belt-tightening and careful selection of projects” being heard, who knows how we will fare?

Legendary US financier Warren Buffett uses three words: “And then what?” when a particular course of action is proposed. They are useful in making people think out the repercussions of any particular chain of events. 

Government won’t fund the airport? And then what? Staff will be laid off, support services will be discontinued. And then what? The helicopter rescue service will be unable to function. And then what? The rescue service will move to Cork. And then what? Weeping and gnashing of teeth from the political sheep grazing in these parts when they knock on your door looking for votes? And then what? We vote to reelect them again? 

What is it they say about insanity and doing the same thing?