Why has Waterford City falling so behind the other 4 Cities Dublin Cork Limerick Galway ?

mikeybhoy

The few times I've been in Waterford it strikes me as a very unremarkable place nothing special going for it but it's not a particularly awful place either just kind of your bog standard Irish/UK medium sized town.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121721926#Comment_121721926

Where or what is ‘londonderry’…..?

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121720225#Comment_121720225

First point is true. Other points are not.

The population in Waterford's hinterland is broadly comparable to Galway.

What does Gateway mean? It's a buzzword invented in the late 90's in preparation for the spatial strategy.

If communications links are important then all the regional strategic corridors focus on Waterford.

The second biggest river system and water resource is focused on Waterford.

The first spatial strategy which was ignored due to political interference identified Waterford as strategically important as did the second and third.

The reason for this has always been political interference from non strategic constituencies who want all of the counties to be treated equally despite it being absurd.

Galway's success is because of government investment and efforts by government through the IDA that prioritize it.

When it comes to natural advantages (water and distance to markets) and infrastructure such as roads,rail, and sanitation then Waterford wins hands down comapred to anywhere in the West.

The insistence by our neighboring counties to be treated the exact same despite not having the comparative advantages means that to placate them Waterford has to be under invested in to acheive local parity that doesn't exist.

Asdfgh2020

Bags of chips on both shoulders of a huge portion of the local population doesn’t help either

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728512#Comment_121728512

When 15 years passes as 914 has inddicated above, without a planned engineering building (or indeeed any new building) for SETU being built, on a site that has been prepared since 2008 at a cost of 3m Euro, you might ask yourself if the chips are justified. I certainly feel aggrieved and so do many others. Should we stay quiet and not say we are being screwed? On its own, that single failure to invest in SETU answers the point raised by the OP.

There is something wrong and chips or no chips, its reasonable to ask why is state funding not available for a major project here when third level institutions all over the country have had massive investment in recent years? A lot of the extraneous points being dragged into this thread are simply irrelevant nonsense. This is not a beauty competition between towns and cities, remarkable or not, as some wit posted above, its a simple question of a fair allocation of state funding.

We make comparisons with LImerick and Galway not out of envy but to illustrate the need for equity.

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121721480#Comment_121721480

A population of 280000 sounds big but isn't when you consider that the area of County Galway three times that of Waterford. Counties are useless at making comparisons. Limerick and Galway are more central to what? Fungi the Dolphin? Things have to be actually true for them to be true. Galway, Cork, and Limerick are more remote to the most populous region of Ireland. The distance between Cork and Dublin is almost the distance between Waterford and Belfast. Dublin is the midway point between Waterford and Belfast.

Kilkenny and Carlow don't look to Dublin as much as you think. They are highly dependendent on Waterford for services,education and employment. Wexford too despite a refusal to admit it are more interdependent with Waterford than Dublin.

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058334631/why-has-waterford-city-falling-so-behind-the-other-4-cities-dublin-cork-limerick-galway

It hasn't. The urban populations of the cities are in the same proportions as they always were since independence.

fuzzy dunlop

There is a few myths abroad about Galway surpassing Waterford back in the day and hence Waterford falling behind. Between between 1966 and 1980 most of the cities went through some sort of boundary change. In 1966 the recorded population of Cork was about 77000 and Limerick about 50000. In actuality the population was probably closer to 160000 and 60000. Waterford would have been recorded at about 28000 but in actuality around 34000. The recorded population of Galway was slightly smaller than Waterford at about 26000.

However Galway urban area was probably similar to Waterford at least at this point but possibly bigger. The main driver in growth for Galway was a huge amount of rural to urban migration which is more akin to developing countries. Hence the huge level of population growth which started around 1900.When the boundaries were adjusted for Galway and Waterford were adjusted in 1980 then they reflected the actual urban population. But you have to consider the following. A lot of growth from Waterford went to Tramore and Kilculliheen. When this is taken into account the proportions between both places are far less stark.And as I said the proportions with Dublin, Cork and Limerick have stayed the same or decreased in our favor.

Valhalla90

Tramore is basically a suburb of Waterford City

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121728483#Comment_121728483

Waterford has some tourists but way less than the other cities and probably even less than towns like Killarney.

Galway's the capital of Connaught so it's hinterland is much bigger.

Waterford, Carlow and Kilkenny are some of the smallest counties in Ireland. Tipp people gravitate to Cork and Limerick.

By "Gateway" I mean people travel through there to somewhere else.

Waterford is a gateway to Wexford and Rosslare but that's it really.

Limerick's a gateway to Kerry, Cork, Clare, Galway, Mayo etc. Limerick probably gets way more tourists than it should.

I agree that Waterford has advantages particularly with Brexit but I feel that the other cities are in a virtuous cycle that just perpetuates growth.

I think a university would be brilliant for Waterford and also tie it in with niche growth industries like wind energy maybe.

Apparently most of our off shore wind farms will be off the east coast, so maybe Waterford could be perfect for that.

azimuth17

All the helpful posts here could proably be summarised: Waterford city should have equitable funding in third level education, in acute medical provision and in Foreign Direct Investment. After that, we'll take our chances.

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121729919#Comment_121729919

Your mixing up colloquialisms with data.

Tourism is not a metric of importance. If it was Killarney would be the capital of Ireland. If that sort of reasoning were taken seriously, our county capitals would be all seaside resorts and Blackpool would be capital of the Uk. Galway and Kilarney as tourist destinations are partially due to board failte promotion rather than any unique selling point. Where there is a unique selling point stems from victorian times when English visitors to Connemara and Killarney saw threse places as exotic while Waterford, Dublin, Wexford and the East Coast towns and cities would have been more culturally integrated to Britain.

Galway is not the capital of Connaught. There is no capital of Connaught. The fact that you think Connaught is a political entity shows how off base you are. The regional governance structures are 'regions' not provinces and the regional capital of the Southern and South Eastern region is Waterford.

http://www.southernassembly.ie/the-assembly

https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/tx_tevprojects/library/file_1515573489.pdf

Again you are using counties as metrics of something which they are not.Dublin is one of the smallest but is the most important administratively and economically because of the population.Mayo is unimportant administratively and economically and it is a huge county. South Kilkenny and a large part of East Wexford is Waterford's hinterland. It is easier for larger portions of Wexford and Kilkenny to access basic services in Waterford than in their own county capitals. And that is why the main regional facilities are located there. This is not some arbitrary thing. It is because of the geography of the region. Almost all of the regional infrastructure such as road,security, sanitation, power, educational, rail and portal infrastructure is located in or adjacent to Waterford. And small size is not a disadvantage. It is an advantage when it comes to delivering infrastructure and services

You don't understand what Gateways are either. You seem to think its some sort of doorway from one place to another. It is a made up term that is used to describe the most important place within a region. What it means in reality is a regional center of economic importance. In the South East that is Waterford.

https://www.britannica.com/money/central-place-theory

https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter2/transport-and-spatial-organization/central-places-theory-market-principle/

Waterford is the most important place within its region for the reasons I have described. There are empirical reasons that the government should be focusing more on Waterford than other places in the region. It should be more in line with Limerick and Galway. 150 years ago there was little in the way of state intervention in regional economies and Waterford flourished much more in comparison to the other cities. Limerick does have advantage over Waterford in one way. It is at a strategic point of the Shannon. But Waterford is at a strategic point on the second largest river system and is in a much less remote location to the large national, British and European markets. Any comparative advantage over Waterford is from state intervention and investment which could and should be refocused. Waterford has no customs free zone. Limerick and Dublin do. This is just one example of many. And a huge part of the economy of Galway has been underwritten by the state for decades and it is still not a net contributor to the the state.

Incidentally Galway's growth seems to be tapering off which means the natural drivers of growth has reached its limit. While Corks recent population growth is drven by an absolutely massive boundary extension possibly the largest in the states history.

Lord Baron Lane 8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121732791#Comment_121732791

Very Well Said a great post .

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121732791#Comment_121732791

Tourism is important economically. It brings jobs and money and growth. Killarney's unique selling point is the beautiful scenery surrounding the town as well as being a "gateway" or base for the rest of Kerry which also has beautiful scenery. Galway's city centre is atmospheric and energetic and is a gateway or base for Connemara and Mayo and Clare.

I don't understand your inference that saying tourism is important, therefore a tourist town should be the capital. Tourism has nothing to do with governance. Tourists go Kerry and Galway for the beautiful scenery and pub culture. It's not political. I don't think Americans visit these places due to Victorian English tastes.

I meet tourists all the time in Dublin and I ask them where they are going and generally they say Belfast, Galway, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Donegal, Kilkenny, Wicklow ,Derry etc. Waterford is doing a lot to attract tourists but is still not on the tourist trail.

Never said Connaught was a political entity. By "capital", I mean socioeconomic capital. People in Connaught gravitate to Galway City for work, education, shopping, services etc.

Cambridge dictionary defines a gateway in this context as "a place through which you have to go to get to a particular area". This is broadly similar to my definition, so either you're wrong or Cambridge dictionary is wrong.

In terms of counties, by "smallest" I mean in terms of population. Waterford is a small county surrounded by small counties, population wise.

Limerick and Galway's major advantage over Waterford is a labour pool of educated and trained workforce. This is a virtuous cycle which is difficult to catch up on. Rivers don't matter in a modern context. The number one reason for FDI and multinationals to locate somewhere is the labour pool. Not rivers. Rivers might've been important 300 years ago.

If you were scouting Ireland for locating a pharma, medical device, IT, finance EU HQ, would you choose Waterford over Galway, Limerick or Cork? It's relative proximity to UK and Europe is a tiny marginal gain. You would choose the place with the appropriate workforce. Waterford has no university so it's best and brightest have already left.

"Galway's not a net contributor to the state" - this is complete rubbish. So you're saying Galway receives more in tax than it contributes?

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121732893#Comment_121732893

Your county size/population makes no sense though. Say I live in North Mayo l then I am more than likely to go to Castlebar rather than Galway.

In a radius of 50km from Galway, Limerick and Waterford City the population is as follows

Galway 300k

Limerick 361k

Waterford 342k

The issue Waterford has in the above, within that 50k radius is Kilkenny and Wexford towns which is fine but political ambitions from said towns do all they can to ignore Waterford as the regional capital and do all they can to pull services from Waterford.

We have seen this with SETU, boundary extension and hospital. UHW is the only modal 4 hospital that is an understudy to a larger hospital as St Luke's in particular never wanted to side with UHW.

The lack of political and financial aid in education, health and FDI has been the result of Waterford's issues and lack of regional support for Waterford.

Thankfully we have a never say die attitude and despite the lack of support we see Waterford on the rise, which has been a result of a lot of local people doing all they can to drive the city.

Willie Donnelly former WIT president and co who founded TSSG (Walton Institute of Research) the only IoT in the county to have an institute of research. Many Waterford based tech companies have come from this.

Eamon Mceneaney has completely transformed Waterford tourist offering, I have lost count of the amount of museums that we have now.

The above is two small examples that have had a big impact on Waterford.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121733030#Comment_121733030

I just mean in terms of gravitational pull, rather than in absolute terms like population and distance.

There's nothing in Waterford City than Kilkenny town doesn't have really. Kilkenny's better for nightlife and restaurants and atmosphere. Dublin is almost as close for everything else. Likewise Wexford.

But people in Connaught will go to Galway for nightlife, education, shopping, services etc.

That's what I mean by "hinterland". Kerry and Tipp people gravitate to Limerick and Cork. Waterford doesn't really have that.

I agree it needs more investment and also there's lots of good work being done.

Instead of comparing itself to other regional cities and complaining about the past, it should craft a vision of its future.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121733086#Comment_121733086

"Instead of comparing itself to other regional cities and complaining about the past, it should craft a vision of its future"

1. We have to compare ourselves to regional cities to ensure we get adequate funding on par with regional cities. Cork is gone to big now as there is only Limerick Galway and Waterford as regional cities now.

2. We are not complaining about the past, just highlight the OP's question about why has Waterford slipped behind.

3. Craft out own vision, we are! We were once a manufacturing city and that was our only draw. We now have a tourism offering, countless museums, a Viking triangle, a Greenway on our doorstep, mount Congreve only a few minutes from the city. We have created a vibrant tech and pharma scene, but all this can only go so far without government support/aid.

Also interesting in tourism talk in this thread some facts and figures from 2022 by failte Ireland.

Galway

Trips 984

Nights 2,703

Average length of stay 2.7

Spend €222 million

Waterford

Trips 422

Nights 1284

Average length of stay 3.0

Spend €106 million

Limerick

Trips 437

Nights 914

Average length of stay 2.1 nights

Spend €75 million

Kilkenny

Trips 365

Nights 729

Average length of stay 2.0

Spend €60 million

Granted the figures above are for the whole country but I think this shows how Waterford is working is working hard to develop its tourism market, almost double the money is spent by tourists in Waterford than it is in Kilkenny. That I'd imagine is a remarkable turned around considering we were once a manufacturing city.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121733086#Comment_121733086

I also need to pick up on the following point

"There's nothing in Waterford City than Kilkenny town doesn't have really. Kilkenny's better for nightlife and restaurants and atmosphere. Dublin is almost as close for everything else. Likewise Wexford.

But people in Connaught will go to Galway for nightlife, education, shopping, services etc.

That's what I mean by "hinterland". Kerry and Tipp people gravitate to Limerick and Cork. Waterford doesn't really have that."

It could also be said there is nothing in Galway that isn't in Westport, Castlebar or Sligo. As could be said there is nothing in Tralee or Ennis that isn't in Limerick with the exception of stand alone Universities and acute medical access.

Castlebar, Westport to Galway, Tralee to Limerick are all over an hour's spin. No way to people in said areas travelling 60-90 minutes daily, several times or once weekly for nightlife, education, shopping, services etc other than 3rd level education or medical attention.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121733364#Comment_121733364

I was surprised by this. SE region gets more domestic tourists than Dublin, mid west and West.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121733364#Comment_121733364

So it does well domestically but not so well with overseas visitors.

fuzzy dunlop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121732893#Comment_121732893

Thanks for proving my point for me...you don't know what you're talking about.

You don't seem or are pretending not to understand the difference between a literal definition and a word used informally or symbolically . In other words your just saying stuff!

The 'Gateway' term as it is used in planning is typically called a 'core city' or 'central place' in other words the socio-economic center of a region. In the South East that has been Waterford since the time of the Normans. It serves the same role as Limerick in the Mid-West and Galway in the West.

And even if you use the term literally as you are trying to for Galway then it is clear that Galway is not a Gateway city. Nobody needs to go to Galway to access any other region or county. If you travel to Sligo from Dublin, It has its own transport corridor from the capital. Same for Mayo and Donegal.

Your fixation with tourism is a classic straw man argument. You are only choosing it because it seems to support your case.But you can only do that if you over inflate the role of tourism which you are doing. Tourism is relatively tiny in today's economy. In the eighties it was at least twice what it is now as a source of employment in a workforce that is one third of what it is now. It is theoretically possible that if tourism vanished as an industry and no contagion effects occurred then in a year, the worst thing that would happen is a recession of 1 or 2 per cent. Now lets be clear...You are the one making a big deal out of tourism. My point is it is not a metric of the importance of a place.If it were so then as I said Blackpool would be the historic capital of the North West of England.

But here is a bitter pill for you. Tourism in Galway and Cork are the two biggest counties in Ireland. This inflates their 'apparent' success. The tourist numbers are in a bigger geographic area. When you consider this their star doesn't burn so bright especially with domestic tourism which is a better indicator because it more likely includes repeat visitors. When you compare geographic areas of the similar population and area then Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny do just as well.

https://www.failteireland.ie/FailteIreland/media/WebsiteStructure/Documents/Publications/domestic-trips-and-revenue-by-county-2022.pdf?ext=.pdf

Your second fallacy is that you seem to not realize that you are throwing around all of these terms without fully understanding them. Hinterland being one of them. Galways 'hinterland' is Galway. Period. The county is so big that the idea that that the population of surrounding counties are 'drawn' to it is not a serious proposition. You seem to be confusing 'hinterland' with functional urban area. And in that case Galway pretty much serves itself and county Galway. Westport has one of the biggest FUA's in provincial Ireland. So does Killarney. This tells you two things. Cork and Galway are too far away for the people there to be 'drawn' to them for services.

Once again you seem to be saying a lot of stuff and buzzwords that you only half understand or that something is such a way because you 'think' its that way. The domestic tourism numbers also belie your claims about nightlife in Kilkenny compared to Waterford. Domestic visitor numbers and spend in Waterford are much higher. Wexford wins handsdown but you also have to consider that both of these counties have a border with Waterford and are in...ahem! Its hinterland.

Grassy Knoll

As someone from the south East here is my perspective. I think Waterford is a pleasant place and IMHO is a bit of a hidden gem. It has a bunch of positives such as some top class modern roads infrastructure and is the seat for the new SETU. It has a great coastline and some beautiful towns and villages + the Greenway.

I do feel it is negatively impacted by its geographic location where it is somewhat isolated and is hemmed in by counties Wexford and Kilkenny in particular. Furthermore the ‘county jersey’ mentality has stifled it. For instance the south KK boundary piece is poor, the full Ferrybank area down to Belview port should be within Waterford county, as these are clearly within the citys ‘orbit’ and strategically would bolster the future growth of the city. Instead (naturally) all the Waterford inspired growth will happen to the south of the river / city and this in turn makes it in theory less accessible to the hinterland to the north of the city, in turn perpetuating the cycle. I can also point to the airport, hospital etc. Equally in Kilkenny, as the main neighbour, the bias will (naturally) be away from the Waterford end of the county.

Kilkenny as has been pointed out is a town not a city (Carlow now has a larger population!) but it has a cachet disproportionate to its size leveraging its tourist attractions. See the number of Michelin restaurants there – this implies money and it also means it can offer the ‘lifestyle’ to attract the type of executives or ‘rain makers’ which bring business and in turn investment etc – a virtuous circle.

The hospital in KK serves Carlow and Kilkenny, the one in Wexford both cos WX and southern Wicklow however in my experience they have reasonably limited services, often sending patients to Dublin for more specialist treatments. However Waterford should by rights be the premier hospital in the region and in time you would have to think as population growth occurs more and more of these services should be located there? The increasingly populous north of the SE region from Carlow town over to north Wexford area are all firmly in the Dublin commuter belt, so the focus there is firmly to the Dublin metropolitan area rather than south to Waterford.

Wexford has over the past few decades had hi profile ministers – Ivan Yates, Averil Doyle & Brendan Howlin all of whom have swung investments that way, while sometimes not at the expense of Waterford, have not served to move the city on. I recall pre motorway the comparison between the main Dublin road to Wexford town and the comparable appalling ‘backroad’ to Waterford through South KK. The 'Martin Cullen motorway' came just at the close of the Celtic tiger and the sense I have now is post the crash it is only now beginning to slowly pay dividends.           

Finally, the port is a bulk cargo / LoLo operation, to be fair most of the fright action now is RoRo so there are limits to what can be achieved there – look at Rosslare booming post Brexit on the back of this mode. I do wonder if the port will ever expand significantly beyond what it offers? The airport given its location has its back turned to the region – again the bigger Dublin and Cork airports all within proximity will prevail?

None of this is meant to be negative, it means the city will need time to find its place and slowly and steadily figure out its way. It may never reach the heights of a Limerick or Galway, but maybe that’s not the be all or end all …    

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121734171#Comment_121734171

Just a point to note that UHW is by far the largest hospital in the south east. It already offers tertiary services to the whole region and they are well used. Its a Model 4 unit while all others are Model 3 with the limited servcies that implies. Staff complement at UHW is now approx 3000 plus contract workers with 160 consultants (HSE stats). ED has same througput as CUH, ST Vincent's or Beaumont. Biggest orthopaedic unit in the country and its cardiology unit which FG ministers wanted to reduce in 2014 is now toe to toe with CUH on throughput. Recent personal interaction with UHW met people from all over the southern half of the country, including Cork, Wicklow and Limerick for treatment.

When you're explaining you're losing to some extent and your post is too long to reply in detail. Cork airport also has, as you say"its back to the region" .Shannon arguably should have been near Limerick Junction. Waterford deserves some parity of funding for acute medicine, thirdlevel education and FDI, with other cities. There are only five cities after all. National Plans either mean something or they dont.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121734149#Comment_121734149

"You don't understand what Gateways are either. You seem to think its some sort of doorway from one place to another."

So you're right and the Cambridge dictionary and everyone else in the world is wrong?

"Nobody needs to go to Galway to access any other region or county."

More nonsense. Anyone travelling north or south along the Atlantic corridor will travel through Galway.

"Your fixation with tourism is a classic straw man argument."

More nonsense. Look up straw man in a dictionary. Falsely accusing me of making a straw man argument is actually a straw man argument though, but I suspect the irony will be lost on you.

"Tourism is relatively tiny in today's economy."

20% of jobs in Kerry depend on tourism. Hardly tiny.

"Galways 'hinterland' is Galway. Period. The county is so big that the idea that that the population of surrounding counties are 'drawn' to it is not a serious proposition. You seem to be confusing 'hinterland' with functional urban area. And in that case Galway pretty much serves itself and county Galway."

Wrong again.

"Short definition: a functional urban area consists of a city and its commuting zone.".

So you're saying people in Mayo don't commute to Galway? Really?

"Westport has one of the biggest FUA's in provincial Ireland. So does Killarney."

Killarney doesn't have a 3rd level institution or a proper hospital. It has a lot of hospitality jobs though.

"The domestic tourism numbers also belie your claims about nightlife in Kilkenny compared to Waterford."

I said "There's nothing in Waterford City than Kilkenny town doesn't have really. Kilkenny's better for nightlife and restaurants and atmosphere."

I meant this in the context of the gravitational pull of Waterford. People in Kilkenny aren't going to travel to Waterford for nightlife in the same way that people in Tralee for example will travel to Dingle or Killarney for nightlife and restaurants.

Your reading comprehension is atrocious.

You're spouting nonsense. Don't bother responding because I won't respond back.

914

To be honest I'm lost on the gateway chat.

I presumed that we were speaking about the national spatial strategy which defined the five cities of Ireland as gateways and other large towns as hubs.

There is a lot of talk of travelling from one place to another as a gateway, is this not the same as having to pass through Waterford for those travelling from rosslare to cork or Kerry?

Either way it's not important. The OP was questioning how Waterford has fallen behind, it is clear to see how and why that has happened as per plenty of posts here.

Lack of funding in education, health, FDI and regional politics.

Waterford is reimagining itself with a vibrant tech and pharma scene and we can see the benefits of that but all this hard work can only continue to progress if we receive similar funding and opportunities to Ireland's other cities.

I'm not sure how this seems to have descended into a debate of my d*** is better that your d*** in Waterford V Galway or the South East V the West.

As a Waterford man, Galway is a great city and county and as a Waterford man I would like to see is have the same craic of the whip with a stand alone University, independent model 4 hospital and the same level of FDI investment, what's wrong with that?

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121736007#Comment_121736007

Correct.

I read before that Waterford port could be used for wind turbines. So that's promising.

https://afloat.ie/marine-environment/power-from-the-sea/item/46508-port-of-waterford-highlights-huge-potential-to-service-offshore-wind-energy

I think Belfast is currently the only port suitable for wind turbines.

With it being the "sunny south east", maybe it could be a renewable energy hub.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121734587#Comment_121734587

Look up the word conflation. Understand the meaning of that before you get carried away with the exuberance of your own verbosity.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121736203#Comment_121736203

I think the expansion planned/underway at Rosslare is largely to support offshore wind services. Someone earlier said that Ro-Ro port activity is increasing rather than Lo-Lo. I don't agree that this will be the case in the future. A lot of long ditance truck trips on the Continent will surelly transfer to rail (up to 90% reduction in emissions) and this means containers and Lo-Lo. So at the Irish end, Waterdord Belview is the best-equipped port in the country: good rail connections with easily-expanded capacity.

Dum_Dum_2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121727491#Comment_121727491

The place is as remarkable and unremarkable as the next place. Quite average in many respects.

So the question is this: why does an average place not receive average funding and average political representation? Why is it below average and sub-par?

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121753142#Comment_121753142

Yes you are perfectly right. A 15 year wait for a single new building to cater for engineering at SETU Waterford really is not remarkable. Everyone knows that's about the average time UCC, UCG, UCD, UL etc have had to wait for new buildings since 2009...Not!