Phoenix: Take off!

The start of work at Waterford Airport to extend the runway is a good news, red letter day. William Bolster almost on his own found a willing investor and saved the project. He kept on pushing the big stone until it actually got to the top of the hill. Without him the airport would probably have closed. 

While no-one doubts that both local ministers were extremely anxious to see the project progress, it being a political millstone around their necks, it was hard to know whether to laugh or cry at their comments. There was implacable opposition in government to the development of our airport for reasons utterly unclear to most people. Even though it offers our city some chance to compete Government did not want this. 

The matching investment required was chicken feed. Our local politicians were unable to do anything about it and that fact has registered with the people of Waterford.

We heard that the airport company “chose” to go private, rather than waiting and waiting and waiting. Government delay, real obfuscation, endless procurement process and never-ending business case submissions, made it eminently clear to anyone with half a brain that they were sending the fool (us) further. 

We were told in 2024 that the airport development “would have to await a new Minister for Transport (Eamon Ryan of the Green Party was in post) before a favourable decision would be made”. Well we waited. The election came and a Fianna Fáil Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, was appointed, but the can-kicking and mushroom-smothering of the project with mandarin shite continued. They upheld the maxim, “Waterford shall not prosper”!

Ms Butler, as is her wont, was happy to blame the Department of Transport. The announcement of an official start date for 24/7 cardiology, 10 years after the famous photo, is to her credit and shows she understands the concept of personal, political responsibility. 

But this is a long-awaited service delivery; the real meat is the delivery of the bricks and mortar infrastructure to underpin that service. That is the crucial and unfilled gap. 

North Quays, Surgical Hub and SETU Engineering building are last government’s projects. The failure of infrastructure vital to the future of this city and county to advance under the present government is the deeply worrying bit.

Having been unfairly schmoozed by Micheál Martin into forgoing a senior ministry, her position as chief whip, which inter alia is as advisor and confidante to the Taoiseach, has been a real disappointment. We wait and hope to get someone into a position of power and when it happens, the chief whip seems content with the status quo. 

There is not a current planning permission or tender for a ready to go government project for Waterford, in health, further education, port, airport, rail, road, FDI or anything else as far as I can see. Nothing! FDI growth is elsewhere in this region as is port development. Long planned UHW acute and community projects have either been secretly dropped or kicked into a future no man’s land. And, it’s always someone else’s fault when Waterford projects are stalled. 

The latest wheeze is the rail line from Dublin to Waterford will be twin tracked to Kilkenny but only single line onward to Waterford. Did Minister Butler approve that? There is a sense that the Waterford Fianna Fáil organisation dances to the old county council tune, of a footpath here, or new roundabout there, being greeted with orgasmic delight, in the undemanding, rural milieu preferred by Minister Butler, while hundreds of millions go elsewhere.

The development of the airport by the private sector happened because government failed Waterford for obscure commercial and political reasons. Confidence and certainty are key in any investment strategy. Government rarely gives us that luxury. 

When Waterford needed a cancer radiotherapy facility, people like the late Nicky Fewer went to the USA and found UPMC because government failed us. 

When UHW needed a second cath lab to back up its own, UPMC built a cath lab at Whitfield. Invariably, Waterford struggles for state-funded developments. When some eventually arrive, in a sort of begrudging fashion, much of the good and indeed the political benefit to whichever party does it, is gone. 

People just get tired of being fobbed off and this has led to real disenchantment with the political process. That’s in no-one’s interest. To counter state failures, our own private sector must do better. 

Frisby Developments have shown the way with the huge Glassworks project. A recent planning application shows that the same company will refurbish the long derelict Grand Hotel in Tramore as a top spec aparthotel. 

Our city is crying out for investment. How long will the derelict warehouse on the Dunmore Road be tolerated? It’s a finger in the eye to the whole city. 

The monstrous carbuncle of the old Ardree Hotel has rotted there for decades. Its owner seemingly immune to the damage his dereliction is doing to our city. Shefflin’s pub in The Manor is a horror. Someone must be able to pressurise these owners into sale or redevelopment? Otherwise the state should confiscate the property. If they are idle for 20 years, they must be worthless!

Our city presently suffers from known areas of conspicuous dereliction, some of it council-owned. Parade Quay is an enormous blot on the Viking Triangle for the past decade. Is it really beyond council to move quickly? Good work is being done, not least with the presentation of city centre properties, which creates a good impression. The private sector has, with obvious exceptions, continually failed to invest. 

There are rumours that a boutique hotel planned for the old Ulster Bank has fallen through. A similar project for the appalling Maryland site awaits commencement. Another project for 44 The Quay seems to have been abandoned as the proposers developed a property in Dublin instead.

In any city, government must do the bits government does, but the local private sector must play its part. Is that happening? The number of undeveloped properties and derelict sites across the city suggests not. 

We are competing across the region with some of the best maintained towns in the country. Are we winning?