€300M Investment into Waterford City

fuzzy dunlop

Road-Hog wrote: »

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

I'm not. I am referring to High and replying to Hog. Hog seems to think their might be a possibility of a meeting of minds. People like Road High would sell their families to slavery rather than see that happen.

In the end of the day any of these narrow minded buffoons will have little or no influence on what transpires on the north quays. How many of them made a submission on the SDZ. none I would imagine. How many of them will lodge an appeal to ABP now that the SDZ process has reached the next stage again none I would think.....keyboard warriors is all that they will remain......had a quick look at the KK forum. Don’t see many mentions of the north quays amongst their threads or contributions from deise folk....wouldn’t get too worried about the road_highs of this world really as they are and will remain begrudging and bitter insignificant nobodies

no arguement there from me!

Deiseen

If someone makes an objection, then how can we find this out?

robcass78

fuzzy dunlop wrote: »

I am interested too. Three posts by looksee! None of them positive! Two of them Sarcastic! Perhaps one of the influencers" Adam Wyse was talking about on Deise AM:D An ideal Scenario in my opinion would be a pedestrian bridge from the Clock Tower. On the other side the pedestrian bridge a mixed use development with a large retail element. The Railway Station then integrated into this. So you would get off an intercity train and step into a retail area, so a walkthrough across the bridge up into John Roberts Square. I wouldn't be hopeful though if for no other reason that CIE as a national organization are a bunch of spiteful c*nts, who exist for CIE alone and not for the common good.

Good job that's exactly what's designed, and exactly what CIE are already working on. With an electro self-driving bus from North Quays to Clock Tower (and eventually around the city, but slowly, slowly..)

CIE surprised us when we found out they are months ahead of schedule. I've found the CIE property guys great, pragmatic w.r.t Waterford & Galway (Ceannt); seems they too get the regeneration & sustainability & integration angle. But then I don't have to deal with operations.

Must say; your comments are on the money 99% of the time.

JohnC.

robcass78 wrote: »

Good job that's exactly what's designed, and exactly what CIE are already working on. With an electro self-driving bus from North Quays to Clock Tower (and eventually around the city, but slowly, slowly..)

I believe the original proposal showed it going down Michael St. and John St. If the Michael St. development ever takes off, it would be useful for that too.

Gavlor

robcass78 wrote: »

Good job that's exactly what's designed, and exactly what CIE are already working on. With an electro self-driving bus from North Quays to Clock Tower (and eventually around the city, but slowly, slowly..)

CIE surprised us when we found out they are months ahead of schedule. I've found the CIE property guys great, pragmatic w.r.t Waterford & Galway (Ceannt); seems they too get the regeneration & sustainability & integration angle. But then I don't have to deal with operations.

Must say; your comments are on the money 99% of the time.

Thanks for coming on here and providing the general public with an update. It would be great if you could continue to use the forum to keep everyone up to date and more importantly to spread the positivity regarding the project!

robcass78

JohnC. wrote: »

I believe the original proposal showed it going down Michael St. and John St. If the Michael St. development ever takes off, it would be useful for that too.

That's the end ambition; not just Michael St, but create a public network of EV's connecting the high population density areas/low available spend (WIT) so they've an alternative network to using the car.

Right now, the focus is on getting funding over the line, as if I start talking electro-buses and even the potential to have a gondola from Ard Ri (Seamus Walsh) to North Quays and then across to South Quays (which is also in pipeline for development as it too looks impressive from what I've seen), it scares a lot of people who've not seen it or done it elsewhere, but we have to keep raising standards and giving people a reason to visit the South East/Waterford. e.g. on the Gondola, having the view from Ard Ri and traversing over the Quays is a superb view, on very little relative cost and is one part of answering "what's different about Waterford" compared to other cities.

It's great to see the many folk who want to deliver a better region working together in the background; it's just not yet in public domain. Yet. Once North Quays is delivered, a lot more will follow.

I'd ask this forum to continue to believe in good times ahead, as there seems some really good, practical idea on here.

BBM77

robcass78 wrote: »

That's the end ambition; not just Michael St, but create a public network of EV's connecting the high population density areas/low available spend (WIT) so they've an alternative network to using the car.

Right now, the focus is on getting funding over the line, as if I start talking electro-buses and even the potential to have a gondola from Ard Ri (Seamus Walsh) to North Quays and then across to South Quays (which is also in pipeline for development as it too looks impressive from what I've seen), it scares a lot of people who've not seen it or done it elsewhere, but we have to keep raising standards and giving people a reason to visit the South East/Waterford. e.g. on the Gondola, having the view from Ard Ri and traversing over the Quays is a superb view, on very little relative cost and is one part of answering "what's different about Waterford" compared to other cities.

It's great to see the many folk who want to deliver a better region working together in the background; it's just not yet in public domain. Yet. Once North Quays is delivered, a lot more will follow.

I'd ask this forum to continue to believe in good times ahead, as there seems some really good, practical idea on here.

A lot of people made a joke out of the whole cable car to the Ard Ri thing. But lots of cities have things like this, as you say, to connect high up areas of the city to lower areas. Could never see what the joke is.

Road-Hog

BBM77 wrote: »

A lot of people made a joke out of the whole cable car to the Ard Ri thing. But lots of cities have things like this, as you say, to connect high up areas of the city to lower areas. Could never see what the joke is.

Having been to numerous ski resorts I wouldn’t think the concept of gondola spanning across the river etc would present any particular difficulty and would definitely be a further unique feature to attract visitors and enhance the whole urban area and tourist experience. Funding of such a project might be difficult and also who would ultimately operate and maintain...... The business community or the LA.....?

robcass78

Gavlor wrote: »

Thanks for coming on here and providing the general public with an update. It would be great if you could continue to use the forum to keep everyone up to date and more importantly to spread the positivity regarding the project!

No problem.

If I may share some insights (as it's lunchtime!), and will do so more via normal channels once funding is announced tomorrow.

As a business we're low-key; we're usually quiet, preferring to let the results speak for themselves. I like that as it aligns with my personal values of community and results.

On that, we're more focused on the social aspect (job creation, sustainable) in the belief you've to talk a long-term view (10-20 years) and in another belief that a strong community is a healthy community. That's not just talk, as I'm bonused on job creation, profit, people engagement. So, creating 2,200 in the development and 10,000 jobs indirectly is something I'm measured on, but also proud to say. Delays, from central government, means we lost 6 months of progress. About 500 jobs not created. And no bonus for me.

We've already invested about 2.5bn into Italy. Example here of the previous Milan Expo centre which is about 10 times the size of North Quays. http://falconmalls.it/en/concordia-milanosesto-download/#

In the Middle east, we're in development scale that are whole city sizes (100 km2) so this is small risk relatively.

Why North Quays?

North Quays is because of the superb site, the brilliant council, the social opportunity to create jobs, and when we create jobs, it creates economic growth.

The super talent in Ireland allows us to innovate; be that from tech / digital or build design ("why not have solar and a zero carbon development!"), but also seeing up & coming Irish brands that have potential to bring to the 40 other developments internationally, which opens them up to 600m million potential customers, as we once were only 3 stores 30 years ago with no development arm, as if we help SME's grow, then it's a better community, as SME's are the 99% of businesses and we once were an SME. Today, we're 3,500 stores across 40 countries, and have more development space than the whole of Ireland, building 120,000 homes a year (3 times what Ireland needs, or 10 times what Ireland currently builds), 3bn dollars invested into renewables and over 12bn balance sheet strength. That expansion into homes 10 years ago was to bring cheaper homes to people, as more homes, and cheaper-to-own, better homes again create a better community.

Once North Quays is the example for vibrant communities in Ireland, we've sights on other developments in UK & IRL, but first, we want to let North Quays do the talking which in turn means people want to work with us.

All this only works if the community benefits; or sorry, 90% of the community benefits, as 10% will always want to live in the past and say "weren't the old days better?" Bluntly, I don't remember Ireland in 1980 Charlie Haughey days, with second hand clothes. Nor the same in 1990's/2000's before Bertie destroyed the country with debt causing a lost generation, that today sees 5,000 young people leave the South East each year; about 1 in 5 of the youth. This is the future generation, and if lose them, it kills communities and simply isn't right nor acceptable, in my opinion. It's also a root cause of why the South East population growth is one of the lowest.

That's in the past.

We can all work together to stop that talent / community drain, then reverse it, as the South East is a good place to live, work & play, but has the potential to be a great place as in the bigger picture, the population growth is the fastest in Europe, and with the new Capital plan (National Planning framework/Ireland 2040 vision), will continue to be high growth and low risk for society & investors. It will also mean for the South East our growth in population will be reversed, and become one of the highest. It does mean ensuring we get our far share of that plan. On my calculations of the fair share, it's about 1bn to come into the South East each year for ten year, based on South East being 10% of population.

I'm going to suggest to Paudie, Michael Walsh (County CEO), Paschal we do a Roadshow on Ireland 2040 and include North Quays and get the others involved in exciting projects to talk & present on what's going to be delivered in the South East that deliver a better region to work, live and play in, as clearly we've to do better on communications, given the amount of good questions in the public domain.

I understand Leo is mentioning it in the Dail today; North Quays to be prioritised, whilst rural TD's are protesting about Ireland 2040. I don't understand why a 50,000 increase in cities, which then encourage the growth of the rural communities. As a rural guy myself, a strong city is a stronger rural region.

It's also great to see the 110bn plan, as that means 10bn a year, which means 1bn into the South East. A year. That 1bn hasn't been coming in the past, so when Government invests alongside private sector, who are 90% of the growth, it sees good growth. That's our experience in other countries anyways.

Hopefully that will see some of this invested in infrastructure too; for example today it was great to see Germany giving free rail & bus to all their people to get people onto transport. And of course, the increase in taxpayer returns from the North Quays, which is about 220m a year return to taxpayer before the 300m FDI intake of cash, means we, the taxpayers, can ask to see that investment capital available for Homes (social, about 1,100 could be built), Cathlab (4m) and education (schools/colleges/Uni).

It's happening

Rob

space2ground1

Hi Rob, your positivity is a breath of fresh air. Thanks for the briefing from the horses mouth so to speak. There’s exciting times ahead for Waterford.

There’s one square I cannot circle. Why would the government be willing to put €60m plus into the north quays when it refuses to put a tiny fraction of that into a lifesaving and necessary piece of infrastructure in the 24/7 cathlab?

It would seem to me that they are willing to invest in Waterford where there is a clear financial return to the exchequer but not in services that deliver a social dividend only (i.e. people not dying in an ambulance in a traffic jam half way to Cork).

Many people are deemed pessimistic if they don’t laud the North Quays as the great step forward but I can see in a way how their enthusiasm for that can be dimmed by government refusal to invest in a life saving service that has been no problem financially to install elsewhere in Ireland.

To me this makes your achievement in securing funding even greater because the dogs on the street are howling that something dark and dreary is attached to the decision making process in funding infrastructure in Waterford. Prosperity that encourages social/health investment is one thing but this country does not lack the funds right now to build the cathlab. Indeed the tech university if I might seem pessimistic is a rebrand of the ITs that facilitates the outflow of students (capitation) to Cork and Dublin. It’s another example of a card trick that gives Waterford a false piece of a finite cake that other cities are munching on.

Too long.. How have we got one of the most impressive multi faceted development plans in Europe and a death sentence for cardiac emergencies at the evening and weekends?

Congrats in advance on your hard work and patience. I’ll be so proud to see this built!

Deise Vu

space2ground1 wrote: »

Hi Rob, your positivity is a breath of fresh air. Thanks for the briefing from the horses mouth so to speak. There’s exciting times ahead for Waterford.

There’s one square I cannot circle. Why would the government be willing to put €60m plus into the north quays when it refuses to put a tiny fraction of that into a lifesaving and necessary piece of infrastructure in the 24/7 cathlab?

It would seem to me that they are willing to invest in Waterford where there is a clear financial return to the exchequer but not in services that deliver a social dividend only (i.e. people not dying in an ambulance in a traffic jam half way to Cork).

Many people are deemed pessimistic if they don’t laud the North Quays as the great step forward but I can see in a way how their enthusiasm for that can be dimmed by government refusal to invest in a life saving service that has been no problem financially to install elsewhere in Ireland.

To me this makes your achievement in securing funding even greater because the dogs on the street are howling that something dark and dreary is attached to the decision making process in funding infrastructure in Waterford. Prosperity that encourages social/health investment is one thing but this country does not lack the funds right now to build the cathlab. Indeed the tech university if I might seem pessimistic is a rebrand of the ITs that facilitates the outflow of students (capitation) to Cork and Dublin. It’s another example of a card trick that gives Waterford a false piece of a finite cake that other cities are munching on.

Too long.. How have we got one of the most impressive multi faceted development plans in Europe and a death sentence for cardiac emergencies at the evening and weekends?

Congrats in advance on your hard work and patience. I’ll be so proud to see this built!

I don't know why you are asking this of our new best friend, Rob :D.

A cynical view of the Government's approach is that they will get their investment back in spades from the taxes the NQ project will generate during and post-development. The non-cynical view is that maybe the 'experts' are correct and the current cath lab setup is best practice for the country as a whole.

I don't believe that for a minute BTW. But I do believe that if the NQ and Ard Rí projects are completed on the terms Rob is describing that we will eventually have the population growth and influence that will mean whatever health facilities we want (or need) will be delivered. I have always thought that the best thing that could happen to Waterford would be a change in the constituency from a four seat to either three or five. Pessimistically I thought the only realistic option was a reduction to three but now I am beginning to believe the only way is up!

Harry Palmr

On the Cath lab, you could certainly make a case that if the state can help pump-prime inward investment to the tune of 50 million plus and create an investment plan worth a billion a year to the region they should be able to stump up a measly 1 million PA for vital heart attack cover.

Teebor15

Harry Palmr wrote: »

On the Cath lab, you could certainly make a case that if the state can help pump-prime inward investment to the tune of 50 million plus and create an investment plan worth a billion a year to the region they should be able to stump up a measly 1 million PA for vital heart attack cover.

The Cath lab is not about money, it never was. There is a bigger game being played here. Cork, Dublin and Limerick (to a lesser extent) want the South East broken up where they all take a piece each to bolster their critical mass for status and investment. The Cath Lab is just another piece of the pie after breaking up the South East Hospital Group. Once that was gone they would move on to the next thing. The counties in the South East spend so much time squabbling amongst themselves that we are ripe for picking.

But we are fighting back..a fight which I don't think they were expecting so I agree with the above that once the North Quays gets built it will lift all ships and we will regain our status as a strong regional city and the investment will follow.

A 5 seat constituency would certainly help but unless we get a place at the cabinet table its always going to be a struggle!

Harry Palmr

5 seats needs another 10,000 people I'd say. So we'll be waiting for that!

Teebor15

Harry Palmr wrote: »

5 seats needs another 10,000 people I'd say. So we'll be waiting for that!

Yeah its a pity the boundary extension didn't go through. We wouldn't be to far off a 5 seater then, instead of the 3 seater we currently have!!!!

Deise Vu

Teebor15 wrote: »

The Cath lab is not about money, it never was. There is a bigger game being played here. Cork, Dublin and Limerick (to a lesser extent) want the South East broken up where they all take a piece each to bolster their critical mass for status and investment. The Cath Lab is just another piece of the pie after breaking up the South East Hospital Group. Once that was gone they would move on to the next thing. The counties in the South East spend so much time squabbling amongst themselves that we are ripe for picking.

But we are fighting back..a fight which I don't think they were expecting so I agree with the above that once the North Quays gets built it will lift all ships and we will regain our status as a strong regional city and the investment will follow.

A 5 seat constituency would certainly help but unless we get a place at the cabinet table its always going to be a struggle!

Sorry, that was my point which I didn't complete. Have you ever wondered why Carlow / Kilkenny and Wexford produce minister after minister while Martin Cullen remains the only minister to ever come out of Waterford City representing Waterford in the history of the state. (In The History of the State, think of it! :eek::eek::eek:).

Its because of our beloved PR system. A small shift in voting can turn a 2-3 seat split for a party into 3-2 ( a two seat gain) while it takes 70% of the vote to get three seats in a 4 seat constituency while 40% will guarantee two seats. Obviously the parties in power ensure that a minister will divert enough goodies the way of his own constituents to hopefully secure those vital last few votes. With a 5 seater we would inevitably suddenly become the producers of minister-standard TDs on a regular basis.

Deiseen

Everyone hails Martin Cullen like he was the second coming of Jesus, he may have fought for waterford, who knows! But he oversaw the most rapid period of decline that Waterford has ever seen.

Maybe he was up against it (I'm sure he was) but he did sweet FA in fairness.

robtri

Deiseen wrote: »

Everyone hails Martin Cullen like he was the second coming of Jesus, he may have fought for waterford, who knows! But he oversaw the most rapid period of decline that Waterford has ever seen.

Maybe he was up against it (I'm sure he was) but he did sweet FA in fairness.

they all do sweet feck all for waterford....

Deiseen

robtri wrote: »

Deiseen wrote: »

Everyone hails Martin Cullen like he was the second coming of Jesus, he may have fought for waterford, who knows! But he oversaw the most rapid period of decline that Waterford has ever seen.

Maybe he was up against it (I'm sure he was) but he did sweet FA in fairness.

they all do sweet feck all for waterford....

But they are not celebrated as heroes!!!

robtri

Deiseen wrote: »

But they are not celebrated as heroes!!!

nor should they...
they have a job to do to represent the region on local, national and international matters... thats the job ... its well paid ... but definitly not hero work

azimuth17

Interesting take on Martin Cullen by Deiseen. It is interesting to reflect that in 1997 when Cullen came to prominence that there was not a single new building at WIT. NO Carriganore, no Library, IT building, nursing building, etc etc. There was no motorway to Dublin, no Outer Ring Road, no main drainage scheme, no flood protection, no Waste Water Treatment plant at Gurteens, . They were all there when he left but still he did nothing . Ah well.they all happened on his watch and would have happened anyway..wouldn't they? His last act by the way as Minister for Arts Tourism or whatever was to provide the funding for the new museums at Waterford Treasures. We need to at least acknowledge our own...and in case you ask, I am not an FF supporter ..although I did vote for Cullen.he did more while he was in situ than all previous TDs for Waterford combined.Pity is that begrudgery and politics from acknowledging that reality.

Deiseen

azimuth17 wrote: »

Interesting take on Martin Cullen by Deiseen. It is interesting to reflect that in 1997 when Cullen came to prominence that there was not a single new building at WIT. NO Carriganore, no Library, IT building, nursing building, etc etc. There was no motorway to Dublin, no Outer Ring Road, no main drainage scheme, no flood protection, no Waste Water Treatment plant at Gurteens, . They were all there when he left but still he did nothing . Ah well.they all happened on his watch and would have happened anyway..wouldn't they? His last act by the way as Minister for Arts Tourism or whatever was to provide the funding for the new museums at Waterford Treasures. We need to at least acknowledge our own...and in case you ask, I am not an FF supporter ..although I did vote for Cullen.he did more while he was in situ than all previous TDs for Waterford combined.Pity is that begrudgery and politics from acknowledging that reality.

Compare what we got in comparison to Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway in the same period and come back to me.

As I said and this is a well known fact, he was a minister when Waterford was not only being left behind, but deteriorated beyond belief.

I have zero political affiliation to anyone, my affiliation is to Waterford and Waterford was decimated under Cullens watch, im not necessarily blaming him but people say he achieved things when in reality he achieved anything of any substance. Thats why when the country finally crashed, Waterford in particular didnt have a pot to piss in.

Road-Hog

Deiseen wrote: »

Compare what we got in comparison to Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway in the same period and come back to me.

As I said and this is a well known fact, he was a minister when Waterford was not only being left behind, but deteriorated beyond belief.

I have zero political affiliation to anyone, my affiliation is to Waterford and Waterford was decimated under Cullens watch, im not necessarily blaming him but people say he achieved things when in reality he achieved anything of any substance. Thats why when the country finally crashed, Waterford in particular didnt have a pot to piss in.

This thread is beginning to drift too far off topic.....back to the north quays please not TD bashing....the Martin Cullen legacy/bashing is futile at this stage. With no minister at the table this project is still progressing....imagine if we had someone snr in cabinet....?

Deiseen

Road-Hog wrote: »

Deiseen wrote: »

Compare what we got in comparison to Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway in the same period and come back to me.

As I said and this is a well known fact, he was a minister when Waterford was not only being left behind, but deteriorated beyond belief.

I have zero political affiliation to anyone, my affiliation is to Waterford and Waterford was decimated under Cullens watch, im not necessarily blaming him but people say he achieved things when in reality he achieved anything of any substance. Thats why when the country finally crashed, Waterford in particular didnt have a pot to piss in.

This thread is beginning to drift too far off topic.....back to the north quays please not TD bashing....the Martin Cullen legacy/bashing is futile at this stage. With no minister at the table this project is still progressing....imagine if we had someone snr in cabinet....?

My understanding is that Paudie Coffey has been one of the driving forces behind much of this. Maybe Rob can confirm.

Deise Vu

Deiseen wrote: »

My understanding is that Paudie Coffey has been one of the driving forces behind much of this. Maybe Rob can confirm.

Ah lads, the politics forum is that way........

I apologise for mentioning Martin Cullen. My point was only that in the history of the state we only ever had one full minister from the fifth biggest city in the country. That is utterly ridiculous.

Deiseen

Deise Vu wrote: »

Deiseen wrote: »

My understanding is that Paudie Coffey has been one of the driving forces behind much of this. Maybe Rob can confirm.

Ah lads, the politics forum is that way........

I apologise for mentioning Martin Cullen. My point was only that in the history of the state we only ever had one full minister from the fifth biggest city in the country. That is utterly ridiculous.

It is, the problem is though that while we have the fifth biggest city, we are relatively small county wise. Unfortunate really.

Gardner

Deiseen wrote: »

My understanding is that Paudie Coffey has been one of the driving forces behind much of this. Maybe Rob can confirm.

Irish Independent stating today it was John Halligan...... was it part of the programme for government?

robcass78

Gavlor wrote: »

Thanks for coming on here and providing the general public with an update. It would be great if you could continue to use the forum to keep everyone up to date and more importantly to spread the positivity regarding the project!

space2ground1 wrote: »

Hi Rob, your positivity is a breath of fresh air. Thanks for the briefing from the horses mouth so to speak. There’s exciting times ahead for Waterford.

There’s one square I cannot circle. Why would the government be willing to put €60m plus into the north quays when it refuses to put a tiny fraction of that into a lifesaving and necessary piece of infrastructure in the 24/7 cathlab?

It would seem to me that they are willing to invest in Waterford where there is a clear financial return to the exchequer but not in services that deliver a social dividend only (i.e. people not dying in an ambulance in a traffic jam half way to Cork).

Many people are deemed pessimistic if they don’t laud the North Quays as the great step forward but I can see in a way how their enthusiasm for that can be dimmed by government refusal to invest in a life saving service that has been no problem financially to install elsewhere in Ireland.

To me this makes your achievement in securing funding even greater because the dogs on the street are howling that something dark and dreary is attached to the decision making process in funding infrastructure in Waterford. Prosperity that encourages social/health investment is one thing but this country does not lack the funds right now to build the cathlab. Indeed the tech university if I might seem pessimistic is a rebrand of the ITs that facilitates the outflow of students (capitation) to Cork and Dublin. It’s another example of a card trick that gives Waterford a false piece of a finite cake that other cities are munching on.

Too long.. How have we got one of the most impressive multi faceted development plans in Europe and a death sentence for cardiac emergencies at the evening and weekends?

Congrats in advance on your hard work and patience. I’ll be so proud to see this built!

Paudie is the only one who not just walks the talk, has the vision and importantly has the ear of the key cabinet players as he was able to line them all up. Basically, he's delivering and since meeting him in December (when we'd all the plans done & submitted), he took the key players in cabinet through the plans and the case for NQ in the region; the social & economic benefits to the region from design through to 2030.

The Indecon report for government showing cost-benefit didn't follow international practices on cost - benefit of real estate investments that are also FDI; it's more suited to "roads"; we're not building a road on North Quays!) It excluded the FDI, the indirect impact of jobs, missed the impact in the region by saying "if construction is built in South East, it takes away from construction in the West." Which isn't true; the population is growing and the offices/retail/tourism all underindex. That's aside.

So, Paudie is the only one really driving things.

Grace is great for what's going to be really important; the sustainability aspect and I expect her to work with Council on Paudie on it, namely, Ireland's first NZEB development and carbon positive.

John Halligan; met him April 2017 (Easter Saturday). Not met since, as I asked him to progress three key areas (1. Train the 1,000 construction workers via local programme starting last year so we wouldn't have a delay in starting and start to build houses so people have more money (both not done), now starting date pushed out 2. Push tourism to Waterford via Shane Ross (not done) and therefore boost passenger numbers on train by giving free transport on it like Germany has just done (to boost train & tourist numbers); not done.) John also said to my Dad at a Men's shed session in Dungarvan that he didn't see North Quays working given Ferrybank and so it's good to see he's seen the light, as when I rang him in December to ask him had he read the economic cost-benefit of 6700 jobs, 2bn benefit, I didn't get a response, as North Korea was the priority about then so guess that was more important than North Quays.

John Deasy didn't know about North Quays when I bumped into him at my kids creche by mistake and hasn't really shown any interest. It's only 6,700 jobs and closer to 10,000 jobs by our calculations so I guess whatever he's doing in the US is more important to delivering NQ, which is understandable.

Paudie is in contact daily; progress, plan, actions, solve issues. We like that; works at a fast pace, similar to ours, as time = jobs = money in the economy!

As for the health vs infrastructure, some things to consider:

Health is one area of government. Cost of health IS economic (obesity & Diabetes has a 0.5% negative impact on GDP a year, or 2bn direct cost to economy on treatment (about 20-22% of total spend on one disease)). Prevention IS better than cure, but 99% of spend in EU & IRL is on treatment, so fix root cause.

Not getting into cathlab, but all I believe is from the 300m the government get for coming into the country, I'd imagine Paschal would ring-fence 4m off it for Cathlab. Besides, with the NPF talking population growth of double Dublin population growth, or 50% for the city & suburbs, it's a question of when, not if. I'm not Paschal, but it's what I'd do.

The circle can be easily squared; the development brings in cash to the government. 300m over next 12 months, then with the 1,000 construction jobs, that's about 18m, then further 100m from VAT.

Once operating, the retail, hotels, tourism experience & offices bring in VAT of about 100m a year, plus the 2,200 jobs on site are about 36m in benefit avoidance (11k x 2,200 = 22m) plus incremental income tax generation. The higher salaries of 46k means higher available spend after tax of about 20k per person (x 2,200 = 44m) which boosts trade across the region. Then the 500k spent by us each year on marketing the South East & Waterford internationally is expected to bring in 1m international visitors, who spend about 200 euro per visit, or 200m to the economy. Which is 2,000 jobs (40m spend increase), and about 40m in VAT a year.

Each year, the net benefit to taxpayer is about 220m. Over 10 years, 2.2bn.

I'll reply once a day covering all relevant questions, where I can.

Deise Vu

Jesus, that is what I call honest, straight up and enlightening.



And also more than a little bit shocking.

Waterboy2014

As others have mentionned, it's great to hear enthusiasm and positivity about future of Waterford in your posts Rob. It looks like a certainty that €63m will be provided by central government for the project which is really positive news. It was hard to see this happening last March when news first broke on this project. So kudos to all those, in local government and with Al Hokair, who are pushing this, including Paudie. I was wondering if you had any insights into timeframe of project from here. I know you mentioned in a recent post that Michael St will hopefully start in July and NQs next April but Im curious to know specifics on the infrastructure piece, including the bridge. I know this is outside your remit in ways but am I keen to seen designs and know schedule. For example, I know ABP need to confirm CPOs for land in Ferrybank and NAMA are still involved with Michael St site. What hurdles are still left to jump? Thanks.