Phoenix: The fight for relevance

The fight for government funding to build an extension to the Waterford Airport runway is increasingly like the World War II battle for Stalingrad. Most people will know that the German sixth army was in that city and surrounded by the Russian army. One of the most savage battles of the war went on for months but the result was inevitable and the Germans were defeated. Some say it was the pivotal battle of the war and thereafter the defeat of Germany was only a matter of time. Has the Department of Transport won its attritional battle against Waterford Airport? 

What Waterford sees in the Department’s actions is an almost inexplicable opposition to a jet-enabled runway at our airport. Their long-term policy aim seems intent on killing off the facility and it’s only the determined resilience of people in this area, in politics and business, who have staved off that evil day. The investment sought is small in terms of the enormous resources available to the government. Private interests are prepared to invest. Councils in the region are fully supportive, but still the answer is no. Almost every tactic available to the civil service mandarins and Sir Humphreys in the department has been deployed to delay and destroy a strategic investment in the South East region.

The Green Party headed by its unlamented, ex-leader Eamon Ryan, had done everything, including economy with the truth, to avoid funding this small project. Local Green TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh has been prepared to throw himself on the fires of destruction rather than voice support for the airport. Taking refuge in the purchasing code of government or allegedly worrying about protecting state money and responsible fiscal policy instead of learning the first lesson of politics “get thyself elected” is risible given the performance of this government in other areas of expenditure. Meanwhile, the national leadership is apparently willing to sacrifice the Waterford Green Party on the altar of unreason. The loss of the party’s Waterford MEP and local councillors in recent elections went without national comment, the Dublin media bubble being paramount.

The airport experience is emblematic and reflects the difficulty Waterford city has in attracting state capital funding in those areas, which drive regional status. Some commentators suggest that a three-pole growth strategy emerged after the financial crash in 2008, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allegedly advised government to concentrate scarce national investment resources on Dublin, Cork and Galway. This policy did not survive the election of Michael Noonan from Limerick as Minister for Finance after 2011 and the huge stream of jobs and public investment into Limerick during his tenure is obvious to anyone who visits that city. All politics are local and all that! 

Likewise, the rapid rebound of the Irish economy in the past decade and vast riches in corporation tax available for public spending has failed to change the direction of travel. Despite the Ireland 2040 strategy in the National Plan, which says that all cities are equal, some cities are more equal than others.

Since the election of Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael-led government in 2011, Waterford City has faced constant battles for funding and relevance. The demand for 24/7 cardiology and the lengths the Department of Health and the HSE were prepared to go to deny this service to the South East, has entered medical legend. After years of false promises, false starts, photo ops and blatant political opportunism, we still do not have a seven-day service at UHW. The Herity Report was cobbled up by departmental and political interests in Dublin and Cork to provide a supposed medical rationale for the denial of equity. Despite tying her coattails to the delivery of the service, Minister Mary Butler looks certain to face the local electorate without having delivered on the main plank of her 2020 election campaign. 

Yet, in spite of everything, the throughput of elective and emergency cases at UHW with two cath labs and five cardiologists is identical to Cork University Hospital’s performance with four cath labs and 12 cardiologists. Truth will out! 

Logic defying decisions and inertia in the face of real demand and a growing population still prevent the Department of Health and the HSE from doing the right thing. The civil service mandarins are tied to IMF advice, which was perhaps relevant 14 years ago, but is meaningless in terms of current demand and demographics.

It is hardly necessary to rake over the monumental Fine Gael failure of the Department of Further Education to provide funding for a new engineering building at WIT/SETU, first promised in 2009, except to remind the voters of Waterford that no investment in new teaching facilities on the Cork Road has been made in almost 20 years. 

Some observers had begun to fear for the future of third-level education in this area. Waterford is alone in that 15-year failure to receive investment in third-level education. This is the central issue, which speaks to an unpublished political or civil service strategy to prevent Waterford city emerging as a dominant regional urban focus and the development of a strong South East region. 

The vast capital resources invested in Carlow IT/SETU in the past decade demonstrate a “divide and conquer” policy. The opening of a new corporate services building in Carlow SETU recently certainly raises questions about investment equity for Waterford and the city’s future role. That analysis will naturally be denied by senior politicians in the present government, but the direction of travel and constraints and obstacles to achieving regional equity are apparent in state statistics. 

The funding provided for Waterford’s North Quays development, which in most civilised countries would be obvious and natural in terms of urban renewal, has been used as a stick to beat us. It’s a great thing, but it’s not the answer to our problems or the limits of our ambition.

By the time you read this we may have had the last cabinet meeting of the present government. An election date may have been announced. The next few weeks will be interesting.