Phoenix: Political deafness?

Dundalk IT is now Dundalk University College. WIT’s identity was stolen and the institute was merged into SETU to erase the word Waterford from the national third-level lexicon. 

Fine Gael treated this city disgracefully and the unfairness is now evident. Is Fianna Fáil with a Cork Taoiseach any better?

Meanwhile… the “National Development Plan, Sectoral Review 2025” shows precious little for Waterford and the south east. 

Everything looks long-fingered as our government reps fail to dent the status quo. We may see support for housing on the North Quays and preliminary investigative work on N24/25 road projects. As the review confirms, the Galway-Mayo rail link will reopen, our new Plunkett Station will open and some passing loops for the occasional train on the Waterford to Limerick rail line may be put in place. Twin rail tracks to every city in the country except us. Really supporting the “regional economic driver”? Support for Waterford Port and Airport is missing, but you’re hardly surprised. They never intended to fund our airport runway.

Presumably Ministers Butler and Cummins have read SETU’s South East Economic Monitor (SEEM)? Do they believe it? Or understand its true import? Minister Cummins’ motto on Facebook is an appealing, “Moving Waterford Forward”, which is what we all want. Without fairly tackling the deficits SEEM has uncovered in government data and providing health, education and FDI infrastructure in Waterford on par with our once peer cities of Limerick and Galway, nothing will change. Two ministers of state do not equal one senior minister.

Shout it from the rooftops. SEEM says: “While the national economy has significantly outperformed expectations - recording GDP growth of 40.2% since 2019 - the South East, like other disadvantaged regions, follows a notably different trajectory. 

"Over the same period, the region’s GDP has grown by just 8.2%, with two of the last five years showing contraction. Dublin’s economy is now over 12 times the size of the South East’s, despite having just three times the population. 

"In 2021, the ratio was nine to one. The South East continues to lag behind national averages across key metrics, including… disposable income, and public capital investment. Meanwhile, the region's foreign direct investment (FDI) base remains weak.

"Dublin, with 28% of the population, is in the process of receiving 56% of capital spending - even excluding Metro North. That is more than double its proportional share. This highlights the failure of repeated government commitments since 2018 to deliver balanced regional development. 

"The South East, despite marquee projects like the North Quays, has the lowest per capita investment at €1,738 - around €7,000 below the national average - reflecting a persistent pattern of regional underinvestment. 

“Over the past five years, IDA-supported jobs in the region have grown by 11.5% - second-lowest rate in the country - compared to 16% nationally. In 2024, there were 15,580 IDA jobs in the region. These FDI roles are typically the highest-paying and most productive in the economy. Within the region, growth has been uneven: Carlow and Wexford remain static; Kilkenny has seen a significant uplift (likely due to Abbott); and Waterford has declined, with closures such as Cartamundi.

“At €32,393 per person disposable income, Dublin is significantly above the state average, and this gap has risen by 25% in three years. Post pandemic, relative disposable income has declined in the South East, Midlands and Mid-East. At €26,662, disposable income per person in the South East is 21% lower than Dublin’s level.“ 

Funding a new veterinary medicine and pharmacy building to the planning stage is a start, but our experience with endless state procurement processes suggests it will be years before we see construction. UHW has only one planning permission extant. That is from May 2022 for a new Out-Patients Department. If it doesn’t start soon, it may lapse. Read the government’s e-tenders website and almost every day you will see tenders for HSE acute hospital and non-acute developments all across the country. It’s years since a Waterford medical tender was published despite projects queued interminably in the HSE Capital Plan. Minister Butler must know this. 

Where are our projects? What is she doing about them? Waiting politely and accepting, as is her form, is not the answer. Live horse and you get grass. We know that well…and, still, no 24/7!

UK NGO Centre for Cities research shows that the appearance of a city centre has little impact on footfall. It’s local disposable income that matters. Complaints about rents, rates, access, retail, parking and congestion in Waterford city are legion as our city centre struggles to attract investment. The same overall issues apply in Galway city, traffic is worse, parking is dearer, yet it has not impacted footfall. The opposite is the case. Despite the efforts of council and business people, our city centre is still blighted by some conspicuous dereliction. Promises of action on the Munster Express site on the Quay, New Street, Stephen’s Street, Browne’s Lane, Summerland Square, and the Parade Quay site etc., have not been fulfilled. The awful Ardree Hotel still dominates our skyline.

It is hard to read of €68 million spent to provide a 2.7km cycle path from Clontarf to Dublin city centre, €6 million spent to build an uncompleted small café in Dublin’s Merrion Square or €11 million for access to Castletown House without thinking that stories of hugely expensive government and council projects in Dublin, symptomatic of an enormous income and investment disparity, between this area and Dublin, are only those that accidentally emerge. 

Otherwise, the spend-fest in the capital ploughs inexorably onwards. Government greenlighting two new courses plus a new engineering building at SETU, after a 17-year wait, hardly represents equitable investment.

David Cullinane pressed Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill on a proposed new Waterford medical school at the Dáil Health Committee recently. It’s being pushed by UHW. The minister, who was unaware of it (?), promised to examine the proposal. SETU must prioritise it if we are to have a meaningful university here. 

We have the Model 4 hospital, school of nursing, development of Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine schools. A medical school would unite the disparate strands, deliver medical equity to the hospitals of the south east and drive disposable income and footfall across the city. 

We need a breakout!