The chief executive of the IDA has told Waterford TD John Deasy that the agency will consider a major re-fit of the former recycling plant in Dungarvan as a base for new industry.

A comprehensive proposal to renovate the vacant Shandon facility was submitted to the agency by senior Waterford and City Council officials last week following contacts between Mr Deasy and the IDA. 

He then raised the proposal with IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan when he appeared before the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on Thursday.

The local Fine Gael deputy has held a series of meetings with senior IDA executives over the past number of weeks: namely, chairman Frank Ryan, new South East Regional Manager Anne-Marie Tierney-Le Roux, and the CEO. He also spoke with Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton last week about the proposal.

These discussions included the possibility of an advance factory for Dungarvan. “While there are other factors involved, the availability of suitable buildings, both office and manufacturing units, is critical to try and draw investors away from the likes of Dublin and Cork,” Mr Deasy said.

Martin Shanahan told him the IDA is “happy to engage” with the local authority. “We will examine that and come back to the council’s chief executive in relation to the proposal he has put forward to see what can be done... and within what timeframe.”

It was announced last week that a five-year, €150 million property investment programme is to be rolled out by the IDA to attract foreign direct investment into the regions — including another new advance technology building for Waterford in 2017.

While positive, “it’s too far away,” Mr Deasy said. And though hopeful that a client company will be secured soon for the just-completed 25,274sq-ft advance technology building in Butlerstown, the Dungarvan TD said a similar ‘turn-key solution’ is needed in the west of the county.

Martin Shanahan said advance facilities are “hugely important for us”, and agreed that the funding made available to the IDA for property investment could “potentially” be used to upgrade suitable facilities such as the one in Dungarvan.

Deputy Deasy believes revamping the 27,000sq-ft plant, “which started life as an advance factory before being adapted to accommodate the Materials Recovery Facility, would make sense. Returning it to its original purpose does seem a logical move at this stage. It needs an internal overhaul and an external upgrade, and the detail of that has been outlined to the IDA.”

He added: “Council officials believe that, properly refitted, it would compare favourably with the new building at the IDA Technology Park in Waterford. Another plus is that it wouldn’t require planning and could become a ready-made facility very quickly. Also, the unit sits on a fully-serviced site of almost 4 acres, with plenty of scope for expansion.”

Cllr Damien Geoghegan, Mayor of the Dungarvan-Lismore District, says “retrofitting the plant for a new industry would make it a very marketable proposition, and hopefully accelerate the delivery of additional employment to the town and the wider west Waterford area. The proposal that’s being looked at would be an ideal fit with the enterprise agencies’ new regional strategy.”

Waterford TD John Deasy has received confirmation that a Dáil debate on dairy incomes, which he initially asked for before Christmas, will take place on March 4; coinciding with the ending of the EU milk quota system next month.

Figures obtained by Deputy John Deasy from the National Roads Authority show a substantial 20% increase in truck traffic across Ireland's the country's tolled routes since 2010-11.

The N25 Waterford Bypass toll bridge, which opened in October 2009, saw a 50% rise in Heavy Goods Vehicles over the period 2010-2014.

Some 175,000 HGVs passed through the plaza during its first full year in operation. Volumes have steadily increased since to the extent that 262,000 trucks used it in 2014.

The National Roads Authority figures in respect of non-HGVs also confirm a near-year-on-year increase (albeit with a dip between 2011 and 2012) — from the 1.697 million other vehicle types recorded at the Waterford toll station in 2010 to a total of 1.92m last year.

John Deasy said: “You’ll get a different interpretation of the significance of these figures depending on who you ask. That the trend is upwards which seems to be somewhat encouraging, although the cause of the increase is debatable.”

He acknowledged that the extensive roadworks on the quay in Waterford in recent years may have been a factor in hauliers and other motorists opting to take the toll road instead.

The new 25,000sq-ft Advance Technology Building just completed at the Butlerstown Technology Park has already attracted considerable interest, IDA CEO Martin Shanahan told John when the Agency appeared before the Public Accounts Committee.

With associated car parking, site services, landscaping and related works, the Waterford facility has been designed to achieve LEED Silver CS accreditation* and was completed on target.

The building consists of a combination of ancillary office space over two floors which will be fit out to include raised access floors, suspended ceilings, lighting, heating, air conditioning, finished toilets and common areas as well as related M&E services. 

The production/warehouse space will be completed to shell & core level and a c. 7m eaves height. The site of just under one hectare also provides space for expansion.

Announced in April 2014, the €1.8 million project, and a similar one in Athlone, represented the first IDA-funded and managed property solution for the marketplace since the early 1980s; an intervention owing to the absence of available private funding.

The investments were supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, as are another nine planned over the next five years, including another advance facility in Waterford due to come on stream in 2017 as part of a €150m IDA property solutions programme, comprising both office and manufacturing units, to attract foreign direct investment into the regions. 
                       

• The LEED green building rating system - developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington D.C.-based, nonprofit coalition of building industry leaders - is designed to promote design and construction practices that increase profitability while reducing the negative environmental impacts of buildings and improving occupant health and well-being. 
  

Deputy John Deasy has confirmed that a proposed multi-million euro stimulus package for a number of critical projects in Waterford city and county is currently being considered by Government.

“The overall figure amounts to about €21 million, the bulk of which would come from central government and the rest from local authority and possibly EU funding,” he explains. “It’s anything but clear right now whether we will get the entire amount but so far the meetings have gone very well and I’m hopeful that a substantial sum will be made available for projects in Waterford.”

He and a senior deputation from Waterford City and County Council met the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Robert Watt, and his counterpart in the Department of Finance, Derek Moran, in Dublin in early December.

They presented a case for funding a limited set of focussed investments, which could in turn spur a private capital injection.

One element of the proposed package deals with Waterford city centre, and plans to deliver a unique pedestrian-friendly ‘public realm’ around a glazed-over Apple Market area, putting the district on a par with any micro-city in Europe.

It’s also hoped this could also act as a catalyst for a NAMA-led €30m development of the adjacent Michael Street shopping site.

It’s projected that creating this shopping/tourism hub, freed-up by a new orbital traffic system, could activate hundreds of jobs during construction and in permanent retail/food-drink positions.

Another project being considered for funding is the Déise Greenway cycling and walking route, which could potentially connect Dungarvan, the city and Tramore eventually.

However, Deputy Deasy has cautioned: “Court proceedings are currently in train involving some landowners and no-one can really tell what will happen. Completing this project depends very much on reaching resolution with the parties concerned, though if these difficulties can be overcome it’s recognised that the Greenway has the potential to generate a very significant extra tourism spend here.”

The would-be investment package also includes a targeted intervention in Tramore, spread between the old town centre (the Market Square/Queen St axis), rejuvenating the ‘abandoned’ area around the boating lake, and creating a public transportation hub at the former railway terminus; including restoring the train station building for community use.

Funding is additionally being sought to finish WIT’s stalled Carriganore Arena to 2,000-seater, fully-serviced standard so as to establish it as a regional-scale venue to conferences, expos and entertainment.

Deputy Deasy said: “These are the type of projects identified in the Economic Strategy prepared ahead of last year’s local government merger. Getting these off the ground would help reinforce the rebranding strategy currently underway in Waterford.”

It’s understood Mr Deasy is separately seeking an advance factory for Dungarvan to attract inward investment to the west of the county. He met new IDA Regional Manager Anne-Marie Tierney-Le Roux about this last week.

Deputy John Deasy has met IDA chairman Frank Ryan to discuss measures that will assist Waterford and the South East on foot of the agency’s appointment of a new Regional Manager based in the city after a 20-year absence.

“It was a good meeting but it was made clear to me that in some cases companies are ignoring the Regional Aid incentives and are heading to the two largest urban areas in the country, regardless of what financial inducements are available.

“A package of measures will be announced for the regions by the IDA in the next month and I discussed with Mr Ryan specific measures that I felt are necessary for Waterford,” the Fine Gael TD Deasy said.

Having described the removal of the IDA’s South East regional director from Waterford in the mid-nineties as “a disaster”, Deputy Deasy’s efforts to convince government to restore a senior IDA executive to the city culminated in a frank exchange with Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton at the Oireachtas jobs committee last June. 

At that meeting Mr Deasy linked the clear decline in Waterford’s fortunes with the establishment of an amalgamated South region, complete with a regional director headquartered in Cork.

That decision, he noted, was made on Richard Bruton’s watch, despite warnings as to what would, and did, happen; resulting in over 80% of all Foreign Direct Investment “going to three particular locations — Cork, Dublin and Galway.”

He told Mr Bruton “there needs to be a restructuring with regard to the seniority of IDA staff when it comes to the southeast, and the situation that was in existence in 1996 when you were minister needs to be reinstated.”

In response, the Minister agreed for the first time at that meeting to review the agency’s executive presence in Waterford — having earlier indicated that an additional 35 personnel approved for the IDA would be deployed overseas. 

Deputy Deasy also wrote to both Mr Bruton and the IDA to reiterate that redressing the regional investment imbalance in the southeast’s favour needed a priority, management-led approach given the unique economic difficulties here. 

“While we’ve seen some positive announcements and an improvement in unemployment levels over the past 18 months, the fact remains that around 2,500 IDA-supported jobs have been lost in Waterford since 2008, with only about a quarter of that number created over the same period,” he said.

“While enticing FDI isn’t easy, changing the trend that’s developed at our expense required, in my view, a senior influential focus and status on the ground, and with this appointment I think we’ve now got that.”

Ms Tierney-Le Roux — most recently IDA European Director and a former regional executive for Waterford — returned to the city in her new role on Monday, with the task of winning investments for this area. 

Mr Deasy said: “I am meeting the new manager this week and it’s critical we tie up the people working in in economic development locally with her office and start improving that relationship.”

The latest Coast Guard helicopter call-out figures further vindicate the Government’s decision to retain and invest in the Search and Rescue base at Waterford Airport.

Waterford’s Rescue 117 saw the biggest increase in missions of the country’s four bases last year, up 33% (from 144 to 188) primarily due to the prolonged good weather, as well as additional work undertaken assisting the national ambulance service, particularly with medevacs of patients. Dublin, by comparison, had 140 missions in 2014 (unchanged). 

Statistics for the past two years, obtained by John from the Dept of Transport, consolidate those for the 2010-12 period, which showed Waterford to be the second busiest base after Shannon. The 144 day and night-time missions attended to from Waterford in 2013 was itself up 40% on the previous 12 months. Shannon and Sligo were the most called-upon helicopter units in 2013-14.

Covering an area stretching from south Wicklow through to Glandore and 50 miles southwards, the southeast service has been run on a 24/7 basis since 2002, with coastal and inland assignments to date fast approaching the 1,500 mark. This is in addition to the crew’s routine work with the RNLI, HSE, An Garda Síochana, the Defence Forces, Local Authorities, and many other agencies.

However, the continuation of a full-time, round-the-clock response service from Waterford had been in jeopardy back in 2010 following a very quiet 2008 call-out-wise. But the figures since have shown that to be “an aberration,” says John. “Had cover been curtailed it would have been a mistake — and it would have probably cost lives.” Also, with missions fairly evenly spread between bases in the intervening years, “it goes to prove that Waterford, like the other locations, has been pretty much spot on.”

A world-class upgrade across all four facilities saw a record €67.9 million allocation for the Coast Guard in 2014. Waterford’s new Sikorsky S92 R117 SAR helicopter was launched a year ago. Faster and safer than its predecessor, with an extended range of 270 nautical miles from base, it can fly at higher altitude and in much worse weather.

Also, each new Coast Guard helicopter is capable of carrying up to 22 casualties, enabling them to provide emergency medical transport for the HSE — including bringing patients or organs for transplants or other serious surgical procedures to the UK.
Facebook.com/Rescue117.Official

Having asked for a priority approach to the delayed dredging of Dunmore East harbour when senior marine officials appeared at the Public Accounts Committee last October, John Deasy says the €6.5 million since set aside for the project is pointless unless it proceeds in 2015. 

Tender documents were issued before Christmas and works are due to begin during the summer. A sum of €4m had been approved in March 2014 but the most ‘economically advantageous’ of the few tenders received came in at well above that figure. An assessment showed ‘very significant risks’ in proceeding with this bid, which could have exposed the State to ‘substantial additional costs’.

John followed up his PAC comments with the Department in November. Not satisfied with the response, he made fresh representations to Minister Simon Coveney, seeking ‘certainty’ for the local community and a commitment of both funding and intent to finally dredge the inner harbour, where a 20-year build-up of silt and sludge has greatly restricted access. 

Now, a revised ‘envisaged timeframe’ expects tenders to be assessed and a contractor appointed this spring. A ‘mobilisation period’ should be followed by work on-site this summer.

John says: “I think the Minister’s approval of this increased funding shows that the Department is intent on getting this dredging done once and for all. Doing so would at least help make the harbour fit for purpose and have a confidence-building effect within the local economy.”

Certainty was sought from Minister

• After raising it at the Public Accounts Committee, John went back  to Department officials seeking a concrete dredging timeframe. Told that “the precise commencement date, duration of the works and disposal options are dependent on the new tender process and the methods proposed by the contractors tendering”, John contacted Simon Coveney directly, seeking certainty that funding would be made available once the additional assessment of the dredge spoil, and the re-tendering, were completed. 
  
• According to the Department, “one of the main issues which militated against a successful outcome was the fact that the tender process took place quite late in the year which was not conducive to achieving the optimum value for money tender. This in turn resulted in a tender period that was too short. In addition a longer mobilisation period would have been beneficial.”
  

Waterford’s Deputy John Deasy has received a commitment from Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the income crisis facing dairy farming will be debated in the Dáil early in the new year.

The Fine Gael TD raised the issue on the Order of Business today (10/12/14). He has also spoken to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney who agreed that the Dáil should fully consider the implications of the latest Teagasc Outlook, which predicts a decline in milk prices of up to 50% in 2015.

From the floor of the House, Mr Deasy said: “As the Taoiseach is aware a lot of young farmers in particular have invested massive amounts of money in farming infrastructure. It would be devastating for them, and for rural communities around the country, if that report was even remotely correct.”

Asking “that the government set aside some time at the earliest date, so that this can be debated in the chamber”, he said that while the matter will come before the Oireachtas agriculture committee, a proper Dáil discussion was warranted.

Accepting his proposal, Mr Kenny said: “Can I say to Deputy Deasy that this is a fundamentally important issue for the agri sector and for young farmers all over the country. I’ve listened to the President of the ICMSA speaking about this recently. It is something of great importance nationally.”

Saying he would “bring the Deputy’s motion to the attention of the Minister for Agriculture”, the Taoiseach assured Mr Deasy, “You can take it we will arrange for the whip to arrange for a series of discussions here in the Chamber early in the new session.”

Teagasc economists are forecasting lower wholesale milk prices from January to June, due, primarily, to global oversupply. This will lead to a worldwide slowdown in production through 2015 — just as the abolition of EU quotas next March, which has prompted huge herd expansion and investment in plant, kicks in.

Deputy Deasy says: “Many rural communities are completely reliant on agriculture and in counties like Waterford dairy farming is the economic anchor of many of our parishes.” IFA figures show there are around 56,000 cows being milked across the county’s 2,760 or so farms.

“You’re talking about thousands of jobs, both directly and in related services and industry, that depend on farming. So there’s no minimising the impact of dairy margins being slashed — even temporarily — at a time when farmers are being advised to expand,” he added.

Given that a 50% increase in Irish production volumes had been expected, and indeed encouraged, up to 2020, Mr Deasy wants the EU Commission to introduce targeted CAP supports to “counteract this volatile price situation and ease the climate of uncertainty within the sector.”

Following representations by Waterford TD John Deasy, the Environmental Protection Agency has instructed Irish Water to take steps to mitigate against pollution of the River Bride in Tallow whilst a new wastewater treatment plant is being built.

Deputy Deasy referred the matter to the EPA in response to reports from a member of Tallow & District Angling Club who was alarmed to see a large volume of untreated sewage entering the river just 100 yards from Tallow Bridge. 

Similar concerns have been raised in the past. The Council previously indicated a new treatment plant would be commissioned before the end of this year. However, the Waterford Grouped Towns and Villages Sewerage Scheme, of which Tallow is part, was delayed.

Irish Water took over the combined project in January and has included it in its Capital Investment Plan 2014-2016. The utility has signed a contract for the ’Seven Villages’ scheme which is due to commence shortly, with a two-year completion target. The local authority has already completed the collection system works.

The old part of Tallow is served by a septic tank and the new estates to the east of the town by an integrated constructed wetland. The septic tank discharges under gravity to the River Bride downstream of Tallow Bridge.

The EPA pursued Deputy Deasy’s complaint with Irish Water and also carried out a site inspection. It duly opened a compliance investigation and instructed Irish Water to take a number of actions — including emptying the existing septic tank and transporting the contents to a suitable facility for treatment. This was completed in mid-October.

The EPA said “Irish Water was also reminded of the requirement to comply with conditions of their licence.” With the upgraded scheme due to be operational in late 2016, “In the interim, the licensee is required to optimise the current plant through increased operation and maintenance and a regular de-sludging programme” — details of which were to be submitted to the Agency by last week. The EPA also wants a screen installed on the primary discharge from the Tallow plant.