More work going on to secure future of Waterford than the public realise
Too many people have made assumptions about what will or will not happen. I’ve repeatedly told people that they have assumed far too much. People are speaking within a vacuum, and that conversation is being driven by particular groups.
There are historic issues between the Kilkenny and Waterford hospitals. There is bad blood there and some of the consultants at Kilkenny have decided they would be better off if they were linked in with the Dublin hospitals rather than Waterford.
However, the Royal College of Surgeons has said a regional solution provides the best patient care and to fragment this region and reduce the number of patients would not be a good idea. Their backing carries a lot of weight.
So yes, there are residual issues among the hospitals that need to be dealt with. The RCSI could be a broker before any discussions about trust hospitals or groupings take place. It is clear that the hospitals need to sit down and work something out, as the best possible patient care, that’s what they all want.
But as I’ve said before, none of these new trusts or groupings are written in stone. Each hospital group needs to be considered for its individual merit. If you adopt an attitude of following a new policy or a new report willy-nilly, you could damage an effective hospital. If you look at the figures, they speak for themselves, WRH is one of the best performing hospitals in the country.
Also, just because I am not on local radio all the time talking about the hospital doesn’t mean that I’m not doing my job. I had been lobbying for some time to organise a meeting between the Waterford consultants and the chiefs in the Department of Health. That took place successfully last week.
Yes, I agree there is some truth to the sentiment that we are not getting our fair share of investment. The unemployment figures in Waterford speak for themselves but we have repeatedly approached Jobs Minister Richard Bruton and the development agencies to bring more development into the city and I know they have stepped up their efforts a great deal in this regard.
There are far more site visits to Waterford now than there once was. To say the politicians are not doing their job is to choose to ignore how intensely they are working. I have had numerous meetings with Richard Bruton on investment for Waterford. And remember, you can’t put a gun to a potential investor’s head.
There has also been huge progress recently in building improved relations between Carlow IT and WIT. That is of enormous benefit to the region. In previous years, there was almost a standoff between Carlow and Waterford and now they are meeting regularly and putting together an application to be designated a joint technological university. This is moving in the right direction. This is a process that is ongoing.
Waterford hasn’t got its fair share in recent years but there is now an acceptance at Government level of that. Yes, the majority of the new jobs have gone to the other cities. But there is an acceptance now and a willingness to work to change that.
There is a fascination in Waterford with having a minister from Waterford but it’s not the panacea for the challenges facing Waterford. Jobs were being lost in Waterford when we had a senior cabinet minister. These problems that we are experiencing: the port, job losses, the lack of university, fears about the future of the hospital. They were all initiated under Fianna Fáil and allowed to fester.
Waterford’s future is about accentuating what Waterford has to offer and putting the case forward. The selling of Waterford has certainly ratcheted up enormously in recent years and again here is another area where progress is being made.
All the challenges cannot be overcome overnight. There is a big mess to clean up. Having a Fianna Fáil minister in Waterford for seven or eight years didn’t help this city and county. This Government has been left with a disastrous situation in Waterford that happened incrementally over the past 10 years under Fianna Fáil. What was achieved? Really, the motorway was the only objective they achieved.
* John Deasy is Fine Gael TD for the Waterford constituency
