Phoenix: For it is written...?

That we are to be written off? Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael sent us the news when refusing to support our small airport. We just didn’t interpret the message and went on to elect Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs anyway. Rewarding people for refusing the tiny sum needed to give this area the economic chance it has been missing. 

Minister Butler told us during the last government that “we must wait for a new minister” before the project would proceed (Eamon Ryan, Green Party, was Minister for Transport). Now with a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, Fianna Fáil Minister for Transport (Darragh O’Brien) and Ms Mary Butler as Fianna Fáil Chief Whip, our political representatives could still not deliver the project.

I was in Cork recently where the level of industrial, commercial and infrastructural development is astounding. Returning home and passing our IDA estate, of first generation units, was utterly dispiriting. How could it be otherwise? We are not at the IDA table. Those who believe that political push does not 'help' industry to particular locations are with the fairies. 

In 2025, 15,319 jobs were committed across 323 IDA-approved projects. In the first half of 2026, 10,410 jobs were committed across 190 IDA secured projects. Cumulative National Total was 25,729 jobs across 513 projects, of which 75 jobs (a quarter of 1%) were slated for one single project (IBM) in Waterford. This is not extracting the urine, this is being urinated on!

With four TDS, two for and two against, we might as well have statues in Penney’s windows. Do they ever stand up for us or just represent their parties? Has Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald ever interrogated the Taoiseach or Tánaiste in the Dáil about anything in Waterford? Anything, ever? Numbers waiting for inpatient and outpatient treatment in UHW are multiples of those in Cork’s CUH but David Cullinane is more likely to protest about the situation in Limerick UH, despite the fact it has been flooded with money, extra staff and beds and the INMO questions the hospital’s admission policies. 

What about long-promised UHW developments? 20,000 people voted for Sinn Féin after all. 

Meanwhile, M/s Butler and Cummins allow strategic investment in the city to utterly dry up. UHW needed 23 staff members to get 24/7 cardiology operational, it got 10. CUH added 233 staff members this year without HSE authorisation, the highest recruitment figure for any Model 4 hospital in Ireland, while Taoiseach Micheál Martin was telling his officials to “have a look at the issue” in what is probably the most overstaffed hospital in the country. 

UHW has 6,156 people awaiting inpatient treatment, CUH has 2037. UHW has 50,700 people awaiting outpatient appointment, CUH has 27,950. Is it not of grave, national, concern that the South East’s Model 4 tertiary referral hospital is carrying waiting lists twice and three times those of CUH?

A recent Irish Times article compared living costs in Dublin with other Irish cities, Cork, Limerick and Galway. Of course we were not mentioned. Why would we be? The Irish Times reflects the voice of government systems and opinion plus vested interests like voluntary hospitals and their associated empires, as well as legacy universities who regard Waterford as a second tier city. These groups presumably track investment metrics and can see that there is not a single, current government project in road, rail, port, airport, third-level education, acute or community medicine or FDI industry for Waterford at the planning permission or tender stage. Not one! 

People see this investment lacuna and interpret it for themselves. You may well be delighted as this administration distributes bags of sliothars, tennis nets, all-weather pitches or fitness equipment locally, but is this the extent of our future? Oh wait, what about traffic calming? That surely will underpin our economic future.

Last week, the Minister for Further Education, James Lawless, announced an Expression of Interest process to deliver 3,300 new third-level student beds shared between Dublin, Cork and Galway under the Higher Education Institutions Student Accommodation Programme. None are in Waterford. 

The glass factory site was bought for SETU some years ago. Not a sod has turned, a plan been drawn, nor a brick laid. Up the M9 in Carlow, a small town an easy hour from Dublin’s six universities, a whole raft of new buildings was constructed over the past 15 years, while WIT was eviscerated by Fine Gael. This was denied by Minister Cummins during his period as a senator and run for Dáil Éireann. Nothing to see here, while the damage to Waterford and WIT’s position, regardless of the creation of SETU, was extraordinary and done to satisfy Fine Gael interests in Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny. 

The removal of Waterford’s name from the TU created by Fine Gael is an unforgiveable, unforgettable humiliation.

Meanwhile, a wonderful graduation day in SETU Carriganore recently was soured by the awarding of an honorary doctorate to former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. That he broke the mould for gay men in Ireland and his election as Taoiseach are undeniable achievements is not in question. Instead, we remember his Bausch and Lomb speech of July 31, 2017. “In recent times, this great city has regrettably lost some of its confidence. That should concern all of us. Many in the city feel that Waterford has fallen behind, has been neglected, even forgotten. And, it's not hard to understand why. Until the 1970s Waterford was bigger than Galway. Today Waterford is significantly smaller. Galway has benefitted from having a successful university, an increasingly vibrant city centre, new industries, and falling unemployment. Limerick has too. In contrast, the people of Waterford could be forgiven for thinking that the city seems to have fallen behind in health, industry, education and infrastructure. 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, but because the success of Waterford is 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.” 

Fine words from a Fine Gael Taoiseach who subsequently forgot them and us!