Phoenix: When is it Waterford's turn?

We don’t want understanding, thanks, we want investment! 

The Dept. of Further Education’s contribution to the physical development of SETU is the €4m purchase of the glass brownfield site. A proposed STEM building for that site has vanished into the ether. 

After 15 years, our proposed engineering block is still not started. Weeds adorn a €2.9m site prepared for it. Meanwhile you came here “understanding our frustration with project delivery”. 

Revolutions have started over less. The government is in its last months, without funding or project equity for UHW, SETU or FDI jobs. 

To now say, in the fifth year of this government, “We need to continue with the progress at Waterford hospital. We need to accelerate our efforts to make the Technological University of the South East a reality to fulfil all the potential that it can offer to Waterford and the region,” while many Waterford projects have been delayed for years, is sticking a finger in our eye. 

When the election comes will it be, “We were about to do them but time ran out. Elect us again and we will do them next time”?

Last week came the great news that Frisby Construction are to commence the redevelopment of the old glass factory offices and apply for planning to build a new student village in the land immediately opposite. That area really needs a lift. 

The work on the glass offices to refurbish an awful eyesore is particularly welcome, but the real money, for the student village, is a long way off. The biggest concern is the (un)willingness of government to commit new funding, courses and students to SETU Waterford. The economics of a new student village depends on that and on a new government’s attitude to Waterford in 12 months’ time when the project has planning permission.

When government wants to act, they pull rabbits out of the hat. Another €500m was recently lashed without comment into the National Children’s Hospital. When is it our turn? Our third level institution has not had a cent in capital development in almost 20 years. 

Do we just sit back and take this kicking, this educational apartheid? Our city is being discriminated against, its future stolen. Your children are discriminated against, not having the same opportunities for education or employment as kids in our one time peer cities of Limerick or Galway. They are reared here to be sent away on the hoof as part of a brain drain that government oversees and perpetuates. It impoverishes us all.

A name change from WIT to SETU, without providing the resources necessary to advance a new university, is a political cod. The time is fast arriving when Prof Veronica Campbell will be forced to make a public comment on what is happening. British author and historian Anthony Beevor said on TV recently “the only lesson one can draw from history, is that no one learns from history”. So it is with the 15-year-long wait for a new engineering building at SETU Waterford.

Governments have eviscerated WIT since 2011. Now, hoping that might be remedied, government is in a bind of their own making. With only one bidder for the Engineering Building PPP remaining and with costs escalating, they are wavering on giving the go ahead at all. Blather about projected costs for boilers and light bulbs diverts attention from the truth, which has been government’s unwillingness to support complete university education in Waterford.

Two seminal dates are conveniently forgotten. Firstly, in November 2011 a Fine Gael government cancelled a PPP to provide a new engineering building and business school on a prepared site at WIT, Cork Road. Fine Gael has tried to draw a veil over that as if it was nothing to do with them.

Secondly, in August 2020 a Fine Gael government pushed our proposed Engineering building into Bundle 2 of a PPP, while favoured Bundle 1 projects in Dublin and Cork (which needed them least) commenced. As a result, we are now waiting 15 years for investment. The unfairness is wretched.

The other great pre-election imponderable is capital investment in UHW. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and HSE CEO Bernard Gloster now say, “UHL has had 100 extra beds opened and construction on a new 96 bed block has started. A second 96 bed block is on the way.” 

Looking at the dearth of capital spending at UHW in comparison, the evidence suggests that our Model 4 hospital, which always has the lowest number on trolleys, is being punished for efficiency. In the past 10 years, Model 4 hospitals in Cork, Limerick and Galway have had an average €220m in new building projects each, while UHW had €83m. Does Minister Mary Butler accept these HSE figures? Would UHW have got more investment had it let things fall asunder?

It is incredible that Minister Butler could say on WLR FM on November 30 last that a builder’s site hut for an extension to the pathology lab was on UHW campus and that work would start in January 2024. It’s now mid-March and neither has happened. If it was a genuine mistake, surely an apology or correction is in order?

Minister Butler was also present in February 2022 when a proper OPD and the vital pathology lab extension were described by UHW management as ready to go. These projects have languished for the past two years, despite having planning permission.

Suggestions that two system-built prefabs outside the Emergency Department are proper buildings are risible. Ask any architect. Have staff at UHW, the go to example of good practice by the great and the good, been let down by Ms Butler? Staff have worked very hard to deliver excellent services, yet our Model 4 hospital is unrewarded with capital investment.

Promises of a new surgical hub are welcome. Amazingly, two in Dublin and one in Galway have been procured and are under construction, to open in 2025. The UHW one is “subject to market conditions”!

Meanwhile, the Nolan Report on 24/7 cardiology services, which will effectively define UHW’s future, is on Stephen Donnelly’s desk. This needs Ms Butler’s attention, as the whispers are ominous. A certain famous photo of herself with Micheál Martin outside UHW comes to mind.