Phoenix: What is our function?

That’s a question increasingly asked in Waterford. What are we? Does Waterford have a role? The National Development Plan and successive government utterances suggest Waterford City is the “economic driver of the south east region”. That presupposes a certain level of government-led investment, commitment and support to fulfill that role, but where is the overarching evidence of that? 

Local initiatives are necessary, but there are many things, which only the state delivers. There is a huge local deficit in those sectors. 

Regardless of what anyone in politics says, the constraints, which apply to Waterford, do not affect our one-time peer cities. They have seen a level of development in the last decade which we can only dream about. Comparisons between Waterford and Limerick/Galway are increasingly asymmetric as we struggle for the support, which should logically underpin this city’s role. 

Instead, “The South East has recorded no real GDP growth since 2018, in contrast to more than 40% national growth in the same period. The region continues to lag in IDA-supported jobs, income, and infrastructure, raising concerns about long-term economic exclusion” - South East Economic Monitor (SEEM) report. A government-sponsored economic apartheid!

Before 2011, the Fianna Fáil government invested heavily in Waterford infrastructure. After that year’s election, the rise of Fine Gael proved toxic to the development of this city, largely due to the party’s political strength in the Wexford/Carlow/Kilkenny areas. 

Our government representatives are unable to ensure coherent delivery on the government’s own policies. 

Regardless of what came our way from Fianna Fáil in the coalitions since 2016, Fine Gael seems politically unable to support Waterford. 

The commencement from July of 24/7 cardiology now appears like a calculated distraction from the sidelining of urgently required physical infrastructure at UHW. It is the lowest resourced Model 4 hospital in the country. The shunting into an uncertain future of a ready-to-go new Out Patients Department and a desperately needed new UHW ward block and multi-storey car park by a Fine Gael health minister is emblematic of her party’s attitude to Waterford. 

A new ambulance station is promised but funding to advance its construction is uncertain? No certain delivery or start dates are available for any local HSE projects. Everything is manana and kicked down the road.

The attempt by Minister Mary Butler on WLR FM last Friday to answer criticisms of deficits in capital spending in UHW and Waterford was sadly depressing. Ms Butler “knows and understands and is aware” but then what? Her risible suggestion that bricks and mortar are secondary was shocking. Tell that to the people in CUH, LUH or GUH! The minister gave no timeline on anything. 

Criticism of the chronic parking chaos at UHW was met with suggestions of a Park and Ride facility, while billion euro new hospitals are planned for other cities. A multi-storey can be built in Wexford Hospital but not UHW! 

Waiting lists for UHW Neurology and Dermatology services are at crisis levels. Cancer services are deeply underfunded. 

Minister Butler’s flaccid excuses were outrageous and unacceptable. Blaming consultants for the delay in building a new UHW mental health unit after many years' delay is dismal. Minister Butler cannot deliver on the maxim that “all politics are local”.

New buildings for SETU are supposedly being designed at present, but, remember, we waited 20 years for one, under construction, new building at SETU Cork Road, while Limerick and Galway had investment hosed at their universities, acute medical facilities and FDI employment. 

Carlow IT built six new buildings, while WIT built nothing. TU Dublin spent €1 billion on its Grangegorman campus. 

Access to funding, which government policy implies should come here anyway, is a huge struggle. 

While Bus Éireann ends bus routes to Waterford, Iarnrod Éireann has stalled development on the Rosslare/Waterford line. Twin rail lines from Dublin to other cities will stop at Kilkenny on the Waterford line. 

Our airport was almost strangled by interests in the Department of Transport. New FDI/IDA industry is noticeably absent. 25,000 people employed in Galway’s medical devices sector shows you what FDI means.

Meanwhile, Robert Watt, former Secretary General of the Department of Health has been appointed to a new €280,000 per annum job. His current contract expires shortly and he will move to the Department of Housing and Local Government. This paves the way for his appointment to head up the Special Purpose Vehicle, that is being established to improve the capital's core following the recommendations of the Dublin City Taskforce. 

The redevelopment of the GPO and O'Connell Street area, conversion of derelict sites into homes, the Parnell Cultural Quarter and a regenerated Smithfield Market will come under the remit of the new entity. 

Dublin City Council, meanwhile, is setting aside €10 million for the demolition of its Wood Quay offices (completed in 1994) as it plans a move to a new €670 million HQ in Kevin Street. Cue massive jaw drop!

Just why Dublin needs a task force, given its development in the past 30 years, is anyone’s guess, but it might be no harm to ask why Waterford city could not have such a government-appointed and paid-for task force here? 

The appalling dereliction in New Street/Stephen Street/Browne’s Lane would, on its own, justify such support. Why is Dublin receiving such preference? It has 24% of the state’s population, but will receive 56% of State infrastructure funding up to 2030. 

When government wanted Dublin’s docklands developed, they set up the Dublin Docklands Development Agency, staffed and equipped to do the job and able to rise considerable funding along the way. That did not happen in Waterford and the North Quays, left to our council to deliver, are developing in a sub-optimal way.

Is Waterford’s role even understood by government? The city is currently without an active planning permission or pending tender in any of the vital, state-funded sectors. 

If anyone mentions as evidence of government support the surgical hub, the SETU engineering building or the North Quays, which collectively are the fruits of last government, don’t listen to them. 

Our name was shamefully erased from our third-level institution to gratify miserable political forces elsewhere in this region. Our independent city status was destroyed in 2014 for the same shabby reason. What’s next?