Phoenix: Urbs intacta manet!

Most locals recognise those three Latin words as the motto from the historic crest of Waterford city. It says, “The city remains untaken.” 

In its 1100-year history, our city has seen good and bad times and despite difficult periods, we’re still here, keeping on, keeping on. 

It’s not a flamboyant or sexy place beloved of the glossy, weekend supplements, but it has its strengths and attractions. 

Most people in the city would probably agree that we’re not the favourite child of this or indeed any government since the foundation of the state. All our politicians must be aware of this. You will hardly meet a local who is satisfied with the present state of affairs in Waterford city. 

I’m not talking about the persistent whingers and knockers who infest social media pages. These are found everywhere, expressing the same negative views about wherever they happen to live. No, the plain, genuine people of Waterford city know and feel that something is wrong, that the cake is not cut fairly, that this historic city, one of five Metro District cities, is not getting a fair deal. It would take a leap of political faith or downright pig headedness to believe that ministers Butler and Cummins are unaware of this groundswell. They secretly must share the same feeling. The obvious question arises, what is to be done about it?

Once upon a time, there was a size relationship between Cork and Waterford. Cork was bigger but not that different. Now, the difference is monumental. The level of industrial, commercial, tourism and infrastructural investment there is jaw-dropping. 

From what I saw last week, an economic chasm separates us. Fair enough, it is our second city, which was described last week by Dr Frank O’Connor and Jude Sherry in an article about urban dereliction, as “awash with wealth”. 

Does Cork’s success imply that Waterford city should be economically crushed? I don’t care if their streets are paved with gold, but we can’t accept politically driven economic apartheid, the hallmark of immature, post-colonial economies. 

Ireland still clings to an economic model derived from Britain, instead of modeling our development on Scandinavian countries like Denmark, of similar size and economic weight, where a whole country, whole people attitude is the norm. Should a fair share of economic development depend on having influential politicians who use their influence? 

Waterford’s sole support is now its own latent resilience, which is being tested to destruction. Who could describe our ancient city as Spenser wrote, “Rich Waterford”, as being currently “awash with wealth”?

Last week the Minister for Further Education announced the creation of five full professorships at South East Technological University (SETU). After all, who ever heard of a university without professors? Local minister John Cummins is an alumnus of University of Limerick, which currently has between 50 and 70 professors, depending on how you count them. He would understand the point. In the run-up to the forced creation of SETU, Fine Gael’s Simon Harris promised Waterford that it would be a university of scale able to compete with the legacy universities. The recent naming of nine SETU researchers as being among the top 2% worldwide shows we have academics who deserve to be elevated to professorships, as would normally happen in any university. Will it take another 10 years of departmental glacial, incremental announcements before SETU is up to speed?

Last week planning was applied for a new €800 million elective hospital in Cork. Doubtless, given Mr Martin’s Trumpian desire to stuff his own place with development, it will have a speedy passage through government procurement processes. Beggary and delay are the lot of lesser places with no pull. After all, didn’t Thucydides write 2,500 years ago that 'Strong cities do what they will, while weak cities suffer what they must'? Three weeks ago, the new National Maternity Hospital at St. Vincent's University Hospital received official Government approval to proceed to construction, with main building work scheduled to begin in early 2027 and an expected completion date of 2033. It has an approved capital budget of €1.861 billion (excluding VAT and Relevant Contracts Tax). However, internal briefings presented to the Cabinet in October 2026 indicate the final total bill could reach €2.1 billion. Suffice it to say that the entire cost of UHW and everything ever built there would not amount to that sum.

Last week, Minister John Cummins announced that a contract for the completion of Walsh Park is imminent. It will cost €16 million, of which government will provide circa €12 million. 

Our reality seems to be that without Mr Cummins in post (this is the sore point), we might not have received this tiny funding at all. We have no guarantees with this administration, as the airport debacle clearly showed, of anything being delivered. 

When was the last major new industry announced here, or the last new UHW or SETU capital project? Neither Ministers Cummins nor Butler will ever believe that this column takes no pleasure in continually bringing to public attention the horrendous disparity in funding, for almost everything in Waterford, compared to the other metro region cities. They cannot expect us to adopt a “Déise lie down” attitude, while hoping for something to turn up, especially not with our delivery record.

It’s possible that John Cummins, as a young man, may be Waterford’s only hope of future equity, should he attain senior ministerial office. Minister Butler seems unable to drive the development of Waterford city and is happiest in an undemanding, rural Waterford milieu, where a new footpath is a cause for celebration. 

Having reached the top table, there is zero indication of the delivery of equitable staff and funding to UHW. 

Sinn Féin has had one TD here for 10 years without the ability to deliver anything. At the next election, David Cullinane will be 20 years in Dáil and Seanad. The willingness of the Waterford electorate to elect a second Sinn Féin TD, when all the indicators clearly showed that party would not be in government, was an unbelievable gamble. Senseless? 

Matt Shanahan spent his time in parliament constantly highlighting at Leader’s Questions the disparity of funding allocated to Waterford. How many people now understand the loss of his articulation and regret our failure to elect him?