Waterford University discussion

Matt Shanahan's reply to FUSE post

"I’d like to make a clarification to the statement above.

‘’I have made no such assertion to FUSE Group that the TUSE process will deliver for Waterford. I outlined to the group my concerns regarding the HQ and Governance locations as well as the lack of clarity on future cost base, funding and faculty configurations which are still unclear. The minister has offered that these decisions are solely the remit of the future board however this minister has already committed that future board, not yet constituted, to significant capital developments and significant additional future operating cost. The minister has still to engage with Waterford stakeholder and representative groups and media on his plans’’.

‘’I have advised Fuse group that I have received nothing that communicates clarity on these questions to date but that I continue to seek answers from the minister and his department on these vitally important issues.’’
Matt Shanahan TD."

I see Kilkenny Yokel councilor "chap" Cleere has been talking about the TU headquarters in Kilkenny again. He said its's the on sensible option and he is sure Waterford will be supportive of it in the long run as it good for the region . What a crock , its never going to happen he is just playing parish pump politics

imacman wrote: »

I see Kilkenny Yokel councilor "chap" Cleere has been talking about the TU headquarters in Kilkenny again. He said its's the on sensible option and he is sure Waterford will be supportive of it in the long run as it good for the region . What a crock , its never going to happen he is just playing parish pump politics

Where is he banging on about this now?

The minute I saw that Padraig O Griofa was involved with FUSE i knew - like everything else he put his name to, it was going to be a total waste of time.

A serial campaigner like that Mary Roche. Campaign and moan about everything deliver & achieve nothing. Wasn’t Roche on the board of mgmt that got rid of Kieran Byrne - a president who had some vision!

As for O Griofa - another boot boy for Matt Shanahan, & FUSE is another platform for Matt like he used the 24/7 cardiac care as his platform to get elected.

Deiseen

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

The minute I saw that Padraig O Griofa was involved with FUSE i knew - like everything else he put his name to, it was going to be a total waste of time.

A serial campaigner like that Mary Roche. Campaign and moan about everything deliver & achieve nothing. Wasn’t Roche on the board of mgmt that got rid of Kieran Byrne - a president who had some vision!

As for O Griofa - another boot boy for Matt Shanahan, & FUSE is another platform for Matt like he used the 24/7 cardiac care as his platform to get elected.

I don't see you (or anyone else!) setting up a group for such an important issue.

Why don't you get involved with the FUSE and offer some ideas as to what can be done aside from "serial campaigning".

I see what they are doing as nothing but positive. I don't see any campaigning from the other counties and this shows how much more important it is to us than to them.

curmudgeonly

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

The minute I saw that Padraig O Griofa was involved with FUSE i knew - like everything else he put his name to, it was going to be a total waste of time.

A serial campaigner like that Mary Roche. Campaign and moan about everything deliver & achieve nothing. Wasn’t Roche on the board of mgmt that got rid of Kieran Byrne - a president who had some vision!

As for O Griofa - another boot boy for Matt Shanahan, & FUSE is another platform for Matt like he used the 24/7 cardiac care as his platform to get elected.

That's nice.

A la Mrs Brown

azimuth17

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

The minute I saw that Padraig O Griofa was involved with FUSE i knew - like everything else he put his name to, it was going to be a total waste of time.

A serial campaigner like that Mary Roche. Campaign and moan about everything deliver & achieve nothing. Wasn’t Roche on the board of mgmt that got rid of Kieran Byrne - a president who had some vision!

As for O Griofa - another boot boy for Matt Shanahan, & FUSE is another platform for Matt like he used the 24/7 cardiac care as his platform to get elected.

This is the kind of sad "hurler on the ditch" type comment that contributes nothing to the issue. It usually emerges from political parties or reps who are pushing the TU. It denigrates people who give their time and effort to do something and who have a reasonable view of the unanswered questions that surround the TU process. Mary Roche brought a motion to local council yesterday which was passed unanimously I think and called for clarity on the TUSE process and funding etc. Is that not what one expects of ones local councillors?

JimWinters

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

A serial campaigner like that Mary Roche. Campaign and moan about everything deliver & achieve nothing.

What's wrong with campaigning? Would you prefer if all of our politicians were just happy with the status quo and accepted the crumbs from central government? I would argue she's delivered a lot more than you, and more than most other local politicians.

For example she submitted a motion to the council on the TU which was passed unanimously yesterday - "That Waterford City & County Council calls on the government to clarify the funding and configuration arrangements for their proposed Technological University before dissolving Waterford Institute of Technology". That's an achievement!!

http://cllrmaryroche.blogspot.com/2021/04/are-we-really-prepared-to-risk-wit-for.html

JimWinters wrote: »

What's wrong with campaigning? Would you prefer if all of our politicians were just happy with the status quo and accepted the crumbs from central government? I would argue she's delivered a lot more than you, and more than most other local politicians.

For example she submitted a motion to the council on the TU which was passed unanimously yesterday - "That Waterford City & County Council calls on the government to clarify the funding and configuration arrangements for their proposed Technological University before dissolving Waterford Institute of Technology". That's an achievement!!

http://cllrmaryroche.blogspot.com/2021/04/are-we-really-prepared-to-risk-wit-for.html

This is the same mary roche thats on the board of waterford area partnership?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40205624.html

Re the motion, talk about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

If anyone can tell me what this FUSE group has achieved too to date? Waste of time.

azimuth17 wrote: »

This is the kind of sad "hurler on the ditch" type comment that contributes nothing to the issue. It usually emerges from political parties or reps who are pushing the TU. It denigrates people who give their time and effort to do something and who have a reasonable view of the unanswered questions that surround the TU process. Mary Roche brought a motion to local council yesterday which was passed unanimously I think and called for clarity on the TUSE process and funding etc. Is that not what one expects of ones local councillors?

What will come of it?

Absolutely nothing.

Its just another talking shop.

curmudgeonly

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

What will come of it?

Absolutely nothing.

Its just another talking shop.

Says the man writing on Boards, is irony beyond your grasp?

I think the FUSE and the likes of David Cullinane are now convinced the the TU is the only way forward for a university of any type in Waterford . That's fair enough and no matter what we think about it the South East TU will come into existence in the next year.
What's important now is it becomes a Waterford led TU with a headquarters in Waterford and Waterford people as key leaders in the organisation.

JimWinters

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

This is the same mary roche thats on the board of waterford area partnership?

She's not currently a board member of WAP, I can't see any page which says she was. Are you insinuating that if she was on the board she was part of some wrong doing? Or are you saying she shouldn't ever campaign about anything because she was on the board of something that failed?

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

Re the motion, talk about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

The horse isn't bolting until Jan 1st 2022. To be fair to Mary, she has been campaigning about University status for WIT and calling out the TU process out for the sham it is since it was first mentioned. But again, how dare she campaign and shure why bother now? Great attitude to you have. What would you have done differently?

imacman wrote: »

I think the FUSE and the likes of David Cullinane are now convinced the the TU is the only way forward for a university of any type in Waterford . That's fair enough and no matter what we think about it the South East TU will come into existence in the next year.
What's important now is it becomes a Waterford led TU with a headquarters in Waterford and Waterford people as key leaders in the organisation.

It doesnt change the fact it is wrong.

5 cities in the republic, only 1 doesnt have a University.

This TU is being rolled out to every pub and cross roads all over the country. So tell me how we will benefit here. Infact it will do the opposite, disproportionately drive us further into the mire.

Generations will continue to emigrate, unemployment, income levels will remain lowest in country.

Decades of poor public represenation & sensationalisting / scandalising by local media have brought us to this point, I have said what i said about FUSE Rochethe lot not going to keep on about it - but if this is our last stand, we are doomed.

Harry Palmr

If you want to have a pop any anyone save your ire for our political class who have never put up any resistance and us the public, most of whom still don't pay much attention to this.

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

It doesnt change the fact it is wrong.

5 cities in the republic, only 1 doesnt have a University.

This TU is being rolled out to every pub and cross roads all over the country. So tell me how we will benefit here. Infact it will do the opposite, disproportionately drive us further into the mire.

Generations will continue to emigrate, unemployment, income levels will remain lowest in country.

Decades of poor public represenation & sensationalisting / scandalising by local media have brought us to this point, I have said what i said about FUSE Rochethe lot not going to keep on about it - but if this is our last stand, we are doomed.

I have always felt we needed a full university in Waterford and I have been opposed TU since 2012 but I am a pragmatist and there is no way it can be stopped now. I think the majority of Waterford public don't understand the difference between a TU and University and aren't massively interested anyway. All of our local TDs are behind it so I can see no base of real resistance to the TU. We will end up with the TU no matter what we do so when that happens we need to it be Waterford based and driven.

azimuth17

imacman wrote: »

I have always felt we needed a full university in Waterford and I have been opposed TU since 2012 but I am a pragmatist and there is no way it can be stopped now. I think the majority of Waterford public don't understand the difference between a TU and University and aren't massively interested anyway. All of our local TDs are behind it so I can see no base of real resistance to the TU. We will end up with the TU no matter what we do so when that happens we need to it be Waterford based and driven.

It is of some interest to look at the university for the south east across the south east county Boards pages. The only place that seems to have any interest or discussion is Waterford. I see no real inkling of anything in Wexford. Kilkenny or Carlow. A university for Waterford has long been driven by public activism because we had a university level facility in De La Salle and it was closed by Fianna Fail. Waterford has some historic idea of what we are missing, somewhere in the local consciousness. In the rest of this region people are content with hurling (how many All Irelands have you?) or tractors (What horsepower would she be?) or whatever their political representatives can wheedle out of the system. Satisfied with crumbs. Its the chicken and egg scenario, people don't miss what they have never had and in many ways , WIT has successfully filled the third level void for many years, without thanks or support from any other county or political rep in this region. All its hard work and success did, was make other counties envious. Its a tragedy of Greek proportions based on the crab syndrome. Wexford and Kilkenny probably think that a full spec campus for their towns can be conjured out of thin air next year. Blame the brain drain!

Harry Palmr

I did that look across boards but I also did a twitter search for this topic in Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow and bar the odd moment usually linked to a radio interview it's largely unnoticed. Could be all happening on facebook of course

azimuth17 wrote: »

It is of some interest to look at the university for the south east across the south east county Boards pages. The only place that seems to have any interest or discussion is Waterford. I see no real inkling of anything in Wexford. Kilkenny or Carlow. A university for Waterford has long been driven by public activism because we had a university level facility in De La Salle and it was closed by Fianna Fail. Waterford has some historic idea of what we are missing, somewhere in the local consciousness. In the rest of this region people are content with hurling (how many All Irelands have you?) or tractors (What horsepower would she be?) or whatever their political representatives can wheedle out of the system. Satisfied with crumbs. Its the chicken and egg scenario, people don't miss what they have never had and in many ways , WIT has successfully filled the third level void for many years, without thanks or support from any other county or political rep in this region. All its hard work and success did, was make other counties envious. Its a tragedy of Greek proportions based on the crab syndrome. Wexford and Kilkenny probably think that a full spec campus for their towns can be conjured out of thin air next year. Blame the brain drain!

I completely agree about the success of WIT made other counties envious and as I said before on this thread if Phil Hogan had been a Waterford TD we would have a well established full fledged university in Waterford today.
Its sad that in Ireland a decision like granting a university to the only city in the country without one is not based on educational criteria or urban development but rather the lottery of local politics and whether you have Tds with "pull" in your area.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I did that look across boards but I also did a twitter search for this topic in Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow and bar the odd moment usually linked to a radio interview it's largely unnoticed. Could be all happening on facebook of course

Not a whole lot on Facebook about it outside of Waterford.

Dunmoreroader

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I did that look across boards but I also did a twitter search for this topic in Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow and bar the odd moment usually linked to a radio interview it's largely unnoticed. Could be all happening on facebook of course

Our Souteastern brethren are obviously doing their talking in the smoky backrooms and Marlborough street conference rooms(via Zoom, Teams etc.) rather than on Boards.

The farce continues

https://www.tipperarylive.ie/news/clonmel/625174/great-news-for-tipperary-university-status-for-clonmel-and-thurles-agreed.html

At least the south east will go from 0 to, 1 University City and 4 university towns.

Spoiled for choice we will be down here.

I know the campuses in Clonmel and Thurles will be a farce but still makes a mockery of the whole process

azimuth17

Dunmoreroader wrote: »

Our Souteastern brethren are obviously doing their talking in the smoky backrooms and Marlborough street conference rooms(via Zoom, Teams etc.) rather than on Boards.

Probably was always true, although this would be political or high level council representation. I mean that while there is general public interest in the topic in Waterford over a long period as evidenced by social media and normal media comment, that interest does not seem to exist anywhere else in the south east to any great extent.

914 wrote: »

The farce continues

https://www.tipperarylive.ie/news/clonmel/625174/great-news-for-tipperary-university-status-for-clonmel-and-thurles-agreed.html

At least the south east will go from 0 to, 1 University City and 4 university towns.

Spoiled for choice we will be down here.

I know the campuses in Clonmel and Thurles will be a farce but still makes a mockery of the whole process

Yea I saw this durning last week
https://wexfordweekly.com/2021/04/12/wexford-university-advanced-stage/
A wexford university , give me a break . It just show how uninformed people are about the TU process. They seem to think that once designation has taken place the south east will magically be transformed and its the solution to all the regions problems.

In reality things will remain much the same as the government aren't going to invest enough to make a difference and there will be very little change on the ground except for a rebranding and the inevitable IR disputes.

Itcarlow haven't even bought a site in Wexford yet and I can see a new campus there being long fingered once the TU comes about . Carlow and Waterford will want to push any investment into their main campuses and by all accounts the current Wexford campus isn't finically viable at the moment and a loss maker for ITcarlow. If that is the case there is no business reason to invest in new facilities down there and it probably should be wound down but Wexford politicians with their delusions of the importance of Wexford wont let that happen

as is pointed out here, this a complete 3 card trick, university towns in clonmel and thurles now too - university spread across limerick, tipperary and westmeath!!

and if the mooted 50m for carlow waterford and wexford comes to pass - draw the bridge lads, last one out turn off the lights.

https://twitter.com/thesaturdayman/status/1382817329373802496?s=21

914 wrote: »

The farce continues

https://www.tipperarylive.ie/news/clonmel/625174/great-news-for-tipperary-university-status-for-clonmel-and-thurles-agreed.html

At least the south east will go from 0 to, 1 University City and 4 university towns.

Spoiled for choice we will be down here.

I know the campuses in Clonmel and Thurles will be a farce but still makes a mockery of the whole process

apologies didnt see this....

meanwhile in cork - UCC spending 25m on a new city centre business school, whereas WIT are still waiting on the 9m built promised in 2005/6 or so....

we will get the re heated leftovers microwaved and given to us as new

Cork will dine from the top table

put that on the thread about politicians serving waterford well.

mart 23

914 wrote: »

The farce continues

https://www.tipperarylive.ie/news/clonmel/625174/great-news-for-tipperary-university-status-for-clonmel-and-thurles-agreed.html

At least the south east will go from 0 to, 1 University City and 4 university towns.

Spoiled for choice we will be down here.

I know the campuses in Clonmel and Thurles will be a farce but still makes a mockery of the whole process

Clonmel and Thurles are both in the Mid-West