Phoenix: The worst insult

“I would conclude, contrary to the narrative provided by the DAA, that there is no rationale for the proposal, there are clear and established longstanding policy objectives at national, regional and local planning levels for the extension of the existing runway at Waterford Airport.” 

That’s what the Bord Pleanála planning inspector said about Dublin Airport’s objection to an extended runway at Waterford Airport. The failure of government over a period of many years to do anything for the airport other than strangle it was against Ireland’s own “longstanding policy objectives”! 

Why bother with government policies at all if they can be set aside for base political or hidden commercial agendas? Is there a deeply embedded and long-standing, rotten antipathy to Waterford in the permanent government and in parts of the political system?

That antipathy came to mind last week while checking the Department of Further Education website. It highlights the Technological Universities All Island University Group (Amendment) Bill 2026, which is ready to go before the Dáil. Under its provisions, Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) will become an autonomous self-governing university college and have an operational name of Dundalk University College, a college of Queen’s University Belfast. 

Isn’t it amazing that Dundalk can run itself and have its name over the door of its Tech Uni but Waterford cannot? 

All the guff, all the bluster from government apparatchiks that SETU was the only game in town, that WIT could not pursue its own path, was a miserable lie to deny Waterford’s 100-year-long quest for independent university status. Who benefits from this deliberate humiliation? 

The only public rep who resisted this was Matt Shanahan. Senior local members of Fine Gael told me of their real unhappiness with what was being done but remained publicly silent. 

Dundalk is not a city but is allowed to do what Waterford city cannot. Dublin, Limerick, Cork, and Galway can, why not us? Do we carry some mark on our foreheads, which declares us different to the other cities of Ireland? 

Will someone explain why SETU Waterford should not be UCW, University College Waterford? There is self-evidently political opposition to that name, but we want it back! Will Sinn Fein propose an amendment to the new legislation to facilitate that?

By the way, the HSE I’m told will not allow UHW erect a sign acknowledging our Model 4 hospital as a “regional cancer centre”. Presumably it just might add to the hospital’s status? What is going on?

Last week, the old jute factory sadly burned down. There was an immensely positive outpouring of sympathy and goodwill for the many small businesses which were ruined and those who lost their livelihoods in that blaze. Even government agencies are stepping up to the mark to help. 

Our commercial and industrial history enables us to understand the loss because we have seen the bad times. It is extraordinary, though, that we apparently couldn’t marshal the same concern and understanding for our future small businesses and livelihoods when WIT was eviscerated in 2011 by government. When course development and new buildings were halted for 15 years! 

Maybe you didn’t understand, maybe you don’t care, but what happened has cost you dearly. Your children, the building blocks and social capital of our future, were exported to universities and jobs in those cities favoured by the regime. They rarely returned. 

The social impact on your family and our city has been immense. The economic loss in terms of disposable income is huge. 

Remember Taoiseach Varadkar at Bausch and Lomb in 2017 saying, “Waterford will not be forgotten”? You must know that there is not a single, current, government planning permission or tender in place for a ready-to-go project in acute health, third-level education, FDI, rail, road, port or airport in Waterford. 

Maybe “forgotten” means something else in government political spiel? And while projects in UHW that were ready to go have been ditched, Minister Butler washes her hands of any responsibility.

Research on urban development by the UK NGO Centre for Cities suggests that state investment is the biggest factor in attracting private investment. Waterford has had a torrid time in attracting private investment over the past 15 years for that very reason and our perception in the Irish urban ranking has suffered.

What has been newly built in the past 15 years in that great half circle of city centred on the GPO and stretching to Rice Bridge, Ballybricken and Canada Street? The Clock Tower Plaza belongs to the North Quays project, but otherwise it’s a very slim haul. 

Imagine, Waterford is the only city without an Education and Training Board (ETB) HQ. The 2011 government removed two VECs from here. No wonder the Waterford College of Further Education on Parnell Street has had prefabs in front of it for decades.

While deprived neighbourhoods are disproportionately urban, cities are far from uniform. Waterford is no exception. It has its better off and less well-off areas. What is very difficult to understand is the extent to which national policy impacts on or causes local difficulties. 

Our council proposed, a decade ago, to build houses in The Glen opposite the tax offices, to build houses in Summerland Square, to restore the two church presbyteries in George’s Street, to restore the Mackesey House in Lady Lane, to redevelop the terrace of lovely shops on Parade Quay, to develop a new office building on the Munster Express site etc. Nothing seems to have happened on any of them. How can the awful dereliction in New Street, Stephen’s Street, Back Lane, Browne’s Lane and Newgate Street be allowed to languish for two decades? Why? 

I can’t be the only one sick of going to Dublin, Cork, Limerick or Galway and indeed to smaller towns and seeing a level of development and infrastructure which is not apparent here. We must do better.

Our rudderless government cannot seem to understand that pouring countless billions into Dublin to create their ‘world city’ and the political favouring of other areas supported by the permanent government has discriminated deeply against Waterford city. That is not, as we see with Waterford Airport, what national policies mandate, but it happens anyway.