John Deasy and IDA re Waterford

Bards

Article from today's Irish Examiner... If Deasy had any brains he would be comparing Dungarvan to Cork and not to Waterford City. All IDA have to do now to appease hime is reduce the Visits in Waterford City so as to be the same as Dungarvan. Talk about hurting the City & County

So this is what we can expect of Fine Gael when they return to power. The very same party that moved the regional director out of Waterford and assigned him to Cork in the hope that Wexford would get more jobs whne they were last in power.


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DUNGARVAN, which lost almost 400 jobs last year, has only received one IDA site visit over that time, new figures show.

Data obtained by Fine Gael TD John Deasy shows that Dungarvan has received only four site visits from the IDA since 2002.

This compares to 39 site visits to Waterford city in the same period.

The Inter-Agency Forum set up to attract additional industry to Dungarvan due to the closure of Waterford Crystal has also not been successful, almost a full year after its inception.

“We are being completely ignored by government.

“To put this in perspective, we’ve had only one site visit from the IDA since the Waterford Crystal factory closed last year. There have been 12 to Waterford city.

“This information compounds the growing opinion that this government treats Dungarvan and the west of the county as an afterthought,” he said.

Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister, Micheal Martin, confirmed that the figures quoted by Deputy Deasy were correct. “As the Gateway location for the South-East region IDA Ireland is seeking to develop Waterford City as a first-class location for overseas investment with the necessary infrastructure, skills availability and support services capable of attracting investment into Waterford and the entire region.

“In Dungarvan, the agency owns 35 acres of land, adjacent to its Industrial Park in the town. Phase 1 of the site development has been completed and the first client has been secured,” he said.

He was confident the strategies and policies being pursued by these agencies, together with the ongoing commitment by government to regional development and the National Development Plan, would bear fruit in terms of investment and jobs for the people of Waterford, Dungarvan and the region as a whole.

meldrew

Hard to believe that is coming from one of our own TDs , obviously he's happy with his voting base in Dungarvan and does'nt need any city votes , apart from the usual oul wans and oul fellas who vote along perty lines no matter what

Roanmore

Bards wrote:

Article from today's Irish Examiner... If Deasy had any brains he would be comparing Dungarvan to Cork and not to Waterford City. All IDA have to do now to appease hime is reduce the Visits in Waterford City so as to be the same as Dungarvan. Talk about hurting the City & County

I think you'll find the reason Deasy didn't compare Dungarvan to Waterford is that they are both under different IDA regions so a comaprison is pointless.
I think in his statement what he was saying was that it's a disgrace that a town that lost 400 jobs has only had one visit from the IDA and compared it to it's nearest neighbour. For it's size Dungarvan should have had a comparable number of visits although he should probably have used Clonmel or Enniscorthy or Carlow as a better comparison.

Bards wrote:

So this is what we can expect of Fine Gael when they return to power. The very same party that moved the regional director out of Waterford and assigned him to Cork in the hope that Wexford would get more jobs whne they were last in power.

This is something I'd expect from one of the Government parties, ignore what was said and instead attack the messenger, this ploy has been used a lot recently whenever the Government gets press or bad poll ratings. I'm not a John Deasy supporter and would not vote for him but he was raising a serious issue for his constituency and was not doing Waterford City down.

Also the IDA are in the business of getting jobs in a region, they are not going to reduce their visits to Waterford City just to keep John Deasy happy.

Bards

Deasey gets his votes from the City & County. Why didn't he compare The Gateway City of Waterford with the Gateway Cities of Cork,Limerick or Galway for that matter and see how Waterford fares over.. Dismally is the answer

Roanmore

Bards wrote:

Deasey gets his votes from the City & County.

I don't deny that, you are right there but conversley you could say so does Martin Cullen, but he has not spoken up for Dungarvan. It's called politics, it's the same in every constituency, one politician will speak up for his / her area more than the other it doesn't mean as you are suggesting that they are againsy the other part.

Bards wrote:

Why didn't he compare The Gateway City of Waterford with the Gateway Cities of Cork,Limerick or Galway for that matter and see how Waterford fares over.. Dismally is the answer

As I said in my original e-mail he was making the point that Dungarvan who had lost 400 jobs had only received one IDA visit in that time. He used Waterford City as a comparison, not to promote or do it down.

You do make a great point though about the number of visits that Waterford had compared to the other Gateway Cities, can you tell let me know what the figures are? If the figures are dismal as you state, John Deasy shares some of the blame for not promoting Waterford but nothing as much as Minister Cullen and Ollie Wilkinson (remember him?), both Government TD's.

Waterford has shamefully stood still in attracting industry compared to the other large regional centres (not just cities) but to give John Deasy a kicking for it is wrong, all the TD's over the years share some responsibility.

Also Michael Martin's statement in response is rubbish, talks a lot about the problem but says nothing about a solution. He should be at the receiving end of you ire.

road_high

This is indeed the kind of thing that goes on in ALL constituencies around the country- this is of course how politics operates.

I remember the very same thing with Carlow politicians claiming all the IDA and Enterprise Ireland supports were going to Kilkenny when we got VHI offices and a few other things a few years ago.This was after years of relative neglect.

I agree that 'infighting' within constituencies and indeed a region like the s east is futile- we should be comparing the number of visits and promotion as a whole region as against say the mid-West or Dublin region instead.

Bards

Roanmore wrote:

I don't deny that, you are right there but conversley you could say so does Martin Cullen, but he has not spoken up for Dungarvan. It's called politics, it's the same in every constituency, one politician will speak up for his / her area more than the other it doesn't mean as you are suggesting that they are againsy the other part.



As I said in my original e-mail he was making the point that Dungarvan who had lost 400 jobs had only received one IDA visit in that time. He used Waterford City as a comparison, not to promote or do it down.

You do make a great point though about the number of visits that Waterford had compared to the other Gateway Cities, can you tell let me know what the figures are? If the figures are dismal as you state, John Deasy shares some of the blame for not promoting Waterford but nothing as much as Minister Cullen and Ollie Wilkinson (remember him?), both Government TD's.

Waterford has shamefully stood still in attracting industry compared to the other large regional centres (not just cities) but to give John Deasy a kicking for it is wrong, all the TD's over the years share some responsibility.

Also Michael Martin's statement in response is rubbish, talks a lot about the problem but says nothing about a solution. He should be at the receiving end of you ire.

Cullen is doing is hardest in realation to Infrastructure for the region. As a minister he has responsibility for the whole country and not just to Waterford. Once we get the roads, which are progessing and runway extension to the airport, there should be nothing to stop this region from growing to it's full potential. The only thing missing will be University status for WIT.

It is way too easy to knock someone for doing his/her job. It is way harder to suggest an alternative, or better still I have yet to hear what Deasey would do different if he was a minister.

Anwway does it matter if jobs are created in Dungarvan or waterford City? it is only 25 mins by car on a good road between the two.

Musashi

Anwway does it matter if jobs are created in Dungarvan or waterford City? it is only 25 mins by car on a good road between the two.

It bloody matters!

Say both jobs pay the same, if I have to travel to the city (25 mins my hole!) I'm down my petrol and wear and tear on the car before I start paying my bills.
I can walk to work in under five minutes atm. Give me an hours drive each way and possibly being on 12 hour shifts thrown in? It makes a big difference to me and my family! My wife is a Nurse in WRH (Dialysis and ex Medical 4) so I know the commute times. A plant the Dungarvan side of the City may be doable in 30 minutes on a good day, obeying speed limits. Going in to the city/IDA Park ot over the bridge could be an hour and a half depending on shift patterns and stuff.

Dungarvan losing 400 jobs is a huge deal for a town this size. People were up in arms over the Waterford Stanley thing. If that had to be scaled to our situation currently, imagine every factory in Waterford bar ....say.. MB Games, AOL and Waterford Crystal closed tonight? The only big employer in town now is GSK. Microbrush and Century Homes are running away, but replacing the Creamery with Dunnes or Waterford Crystal with nothing isn't cutting it! The town is rapidly becoming a dornitory town for Waterford City and Clonmel.

Our Politicians are leaving us down, but at least John Deasy is raising the issue. Cullen and Wilkinson are unheard of until the vote machine starts up again. I hope I'm home when they call canvassing!

Bards

Musashi wrote:

It bloody matters!

Say both jobs pay the same, if I have to travel to the city (25 mins my hole!) I'm down my petrol and wear and tear on the car before I start paying my bills.
I can walk to work in under five minutes atm. Give me an hours drive each way and possibly being on 12 hour shifts thrown in? It makes a big difference to me and my family! My wife is a Nurse in WRH (Dialysis and ex Medical 4) so I know the commute times. A plant the Dungarvan side of the City may be doable in 30 minutes on a good day, obeying speed limits. Going in to the city/IDA Park ot over the bridge could be an hour and a half depending on shift patterns and stuff.

Dungarvan losing 400 jobs is a huge deal for a town this size. People were up in arms over the Waterford Stanley thing. If that had to be scaled to our situation currently, imagine every factory in Waterford bar ....say.. MB Games, AOL and Waterford Crystal closed tonight? The only big employer in town now is GSK. Microbrush and Century Homes are running away, but replacing the Creamery with Dunnes or Waterford Crystal with nothing isn't cutting it! The town is rapidly becoming a dornitory town for Waterford City and Clonmel.

Our Politicians are leaving us down, but at least John Deasy is raising the issue. Cullen and Wilkinson are unheard of until the vote machine starts up again. I hope I'm home when they call canvassing!

In this day and age 25 mins is not a huge commute. Just look at all those young Dublin families being forced to move to Carlow, GOrey and beyond. Getting up at 6am to be in Dublin City for 9,am and not back hone until 7 or 8pm.

I lived in London and travelled an hour by tube every day each way (6 miles to work)

You cannot expect every town in Ireland to have large employers. It just aint going to happen. Waterfrord City is the Regional Capital of thew S.E and most attain Critical Mass.

Can someone tell me if we are the only City that has the County Council located in a different part of the County. I know for a fact that Cork City house both the City & Council offices hence why there is neve an outcry in Cork county when Cork City lands yest another large employer whiloe traditional industry closes down in the county (Mallow Sugar)

merlante

Waterford is the only city which is not also the county town (iirc.). There are no other towns of any kind of size in Limerick. Dublin dominated its small county since day one. Cork was the only sizeable town in Cork. Galway only got it's city status back in the 20th century, and prior to that it was the county town, although maybe if they were doing these things today, Athenry might be the county town.

Waterford has always been separated into east and west:
Deise v Vikings
Irish Language v English language
Lismore parish v Waterford parish

etc.

So that might have something to do with it... Also Dungarvan has a county town's population.