Waterford TD John Deasy has called on the Government to urgently look at deploying a larger IDA staff to the city, as talks continue concerning the future of the local Bausch + Lomb plant.

In a submission to Jobs Minister Richard Bruton, the Fine Gael Deputy pointed to the extra 35 new IDA Ireland personnel announced by his Department in February.

Since the restructuring of the IDA in the mid-1990s — which amalgamated the agency’s south-east and south-west divisions — the Southern Regional Director has been based in Cork. In the intervening years over 80% of all Foreign Direct Investment has gone to Dublin, Cork, and Galway.

An estimated 2,441 IDA Ireland company jobs have been lost in Waterford since 2008, with only around 581 created. There are just four IDA staff responsible for the south-east, all based in the city.

“While the IDA might argue that a director is not needed in every region, and that its preference is for a global spread of staff, the South East is facing unique economic difficulties,” Mr Deasy said.

The IDA is constructing a new advance technology building in Waterford but he feels “an even greater dedication of resources is required” — starting with some of the 35 new approved posts.

Mr Deasy pointed out that last year’s report by DKM economic consultants recommended a number of ‘high-level interventions’ to Government to support the Waterford council amalgamation — including an IDA Regional Director based here to promote FDI.

“I believe it’s imperative that the IDA’s personnel contingent in Waterford is increased and that the level of seniority attached to the Waterford IDA office is reflected at executive management level.”

Also, with new IDA chairman, Frank Ryan, only recently in place and a new CEO, Martin Shanahan, installed this week, Deputy Deasy feels “it’s time that the IDA’s entire strategy when it comes to Waterford city and county was revisited given its lack of success in terms of attracting FDI, ongoing job losses and high unemployment.”

Last week a “disgusted” Mr Deasy requested the Irish Ambassador to the United States to intervene after New York Senator Chuck Schumer revealed he’d directly phoned the CEO of Bausch + Lomb’s parent company Valeant seeking to have Waterford production relocated to Rochester.

Describing it as an “underhand” attempt to “impoverish” Waterford workers, Mr Deasy — a former congressional aide in Washington — contacted Ambassador Anne Anderson, who communicated the Irish Embassy’s concerns to the Democrat Senator’s office.

The Irish Embassy in Washington D.C. contacted a United States senator to raise concerns over his call for more than 1,100 at-risk jobs at Bausch + Lomb in Waterford to be moved to New York.

The Irish Times and Irish Examiner both reported the high-level intervention, made at the request of Waterford Government TD John Deasy.

The Irish Ambassador to the US, Anne Anderson, confirmed in a letter to the Fine Gael Deputy that, at his behest, the Embassy in Washington contacted the New York office of Democrat senator Charles ‘Chuck’ Schumer.

This followed Mr Schumer’s call for jobs at Bausch + Lomb in Waterford – currently the subject of negotiations between management and unions – to be relocated to Rochester, New York, where the company also has an operation.

Ambassador Anderson told Mr Deasy: “The Embassy has been in touch with Senator Schumer’s office to draw attention to the sensitivity of this issue, the ongoing negotiations between management, the employees and their unions, and the concern that these jobs be safeguarded in Ireland.”

Mr Schumer had revealed he had “called the CEO of [parent company] Valeant and urged him to move that work and those jobs to Rochester”. 

In a press release to this effect, he also said that, after his phone call with Valeant chief executive J. Michael Pearson, he was “confident that Rochester will have a great shot at adding work and jobs from the potential closure of the Ireland plant”.

However, though Mr Pearson subsequently assured Waterford employees in a memo that Bausch + Lomb was committed to maintaining its presence in the city – provided the company got the €20million in cutbacks it wanted – Deputy Deasy was furious at Senator Schumer’s “sneaky” actions.

In a letter to the Ambassador, Mr Deasy said he found Mr Schumer’s media release “unbelievably distasteful”. Having separately condemned the Senator’s “pathetic” attempt to “impoverish” Irish workers, the Waterford Deputy suggested to the Embassy, “I think the Irish Government should express its disgust as well.”

Mr Deasy, who worked as a congressional aide on Capitol Hill before returning to pursue a career in Irish politics, said that, as a former employee of the Senate, “I never thought that a U.S. senator would act in such an underhand manner.”

He asked the Ambassador, “I would appreciate if you would communicate my disgust at the way he and his office are behaving as it pertains to the Bausch + Lomb workforce in Waterford City.”
He added: “I think the Irish Embassy should communicate to Senator Schumer that it would be better if he allowed those negotiations to conclude before issuing any press statements.”

Explaining why he took such offence, Mr Deasy said: “We all fight for our constituencies, but ringing a company CEO to impoverish Irish workers is pathetic. Senator Schumer likes to portray himself as a friend of Ireland. I hope Irish-Americans in New York get to hear about his sneakiness. He has peddled his Schumer visas for Irish people for years. Irish-American voters have just got an insight into how he works.”

Fine Gael TD John Deasy has told the Dáil that the new Ireland Strategic Investment Fund must be aimed at areas worst affected by, not just the recession, but “our evolving two-tier recovery.”

During statements on the Government’s priorities for the year ahead, the Waterford deputy warned that “undue political influence” mustn’t prevent an objective share-out of the €6.8billion stimulus package. “It cannot end up being a political pie, gobbled up by insecure politicians with one eye on a general election,” he said.

Mr Deasy declared that after three years in office, the Government’s strategy to spread jobs to the regions clearly “has not worked ... I have concluded that as long as the headline figures for the country as a whole are positive, the virtual non-existence of regional investment is considered irrelevant. There is almost a sense of resignation about the fact that so much investment – 82% – goes to Cork, Dublin and Galway and so little goes elsewhere.” 

Of the 2014 Action Plan for Jobs, other than plans for a few advance manufacturing facilities (one in Waterford), he’d “heard it all before.”

In Waterford, where the unemployment rate remains at around 20%, “a downward trend is still being experienced,” he said. Any improvement in the Live Register figures needed to be seen in the context of the huge number of jobs hemorrhaged locally over the last six years, including multiple business and industry closures in the past 12 months.

Mr Deasy put forward “two specific suggestions” to address the growing geographical disparity in terms of job creation. The first being the new strategic fund, which, matched with private sector investment, could provide a national economic injection of €12–15bn. 

“This is the only show in town. It is the only stimulus package the country will see for the next five or six years,” he said, insisting it “must be predominantly and proportionately invested in those parts of the country which have seen the least investment over the last ten to 15 years.”

Given the key aim of “isolating the fund from political interference”, the FG deputy insisted that policy and legislation “must guard against base political tendencies influencing how the stimulus package is divided up.”

Though focusing it on deprived regions is “reasonable logic”, he predicted it “will not make sense to some politicians who see an election on the horizon and a potential lump of money for their own constituencies.”

On the other hand, targeting areas where the economic indicators of decline are at their highest should make sense “to any government which is interested in balanced regional development.”
Mr Deasy sees the new Regional Aid guidelines for 2014–20, which are due to be published by the European Commission in July, as the ideal framework for distributing the ISIF investment.

If moves to direct aid towards those areas that need it most are not considered in forthcoming legislation governing the fund, “I will attempt to amend the Bill at the very least to highlight the scenario I have just painted,” he said.

Given there are “people at the most senior level in the IDA who believe the policy designed to attract foreign direct investment evenly across the State has failed miserably and must be re-engineered immediately”, Deputy Deasy’s second solution focused on the recent authorisation of 35 additional IDA staff. 

With Waterford a notable, negative exception in terms of net IDA job creation among Irish cities last year, he looked at where the agency’s existing staff are based — including five in Waterford, 36 in Athlone, and 148 in Dublin.

Deploying the new staff coming on stream into those parts worst affected by the recession and which have seen the least amount of FDI, would be “a good start” in terms of prioritising recovery in the country as a whole, he said.

Additional rates reliefs have been included in the new Local Government Bill after Minister Phil Hogan accepted proposals by Waterford Fine Gael TD John Deasy and Labour Deputy for Dublin Mid West, Robert Dowds.

The Minister was thanked for taking the thrust of two joint-amendments they put forward and incorporating them into the new legislation as it passed through the Dáil on Wednesday. Deputy Deasy said Mr Hogan had been ‘as good as his word’ when it came to reducing commercial rate levels in Waterford.

The first change the TDs sought and secured was in respect of a planned rates refund mechanism for vacant premises. In taking their arguments on board, the Minister is to give discretion to elected councillors right across the country to allow owner/occupiers who can’t secure tenants a full rates rebate – not a maximum of 50% as the Bill originally proposed (and which is currently applied in Dublin, Cork and Limerick).

Deputy Deasy said: “The Minister accepted there are areas where there is little or no demand for commercial premises. Councillors will now have the authority to tailor vacancy refunds – from 100% down to zero – to best suit the economic circumstances in particular counties or specific municipal districts.

“While I understand how some local authority officials would have seen a need to have a deterrent to people holding onto sites, to have a blanket 50% rebate would have been madness in this economic climate.

“There is a two-tier economy in this country. In some areas, like my own homeplace of Dungarvan, it’s not a matter of choice. In many parts of Ireland owners simply can’t get tenants for commercial premises. And enabling this to be implemented on a district level will allow for the differences between rural and urban areas.”

The Deputies – who are colleagues on the Dáil Public Accounts Committee – also proposed an amendment dealing with the issue of outstanding rates charges being passed on to new occupiers; something the Minister was anxious about as well.

“He accepted that maintaining the status quo could give rise to an unfair burden on businesses seeking to expand, relocate or start up. In some cases the arrears on a particular premises were holding up the sale,” Mr Deasy said.

“In dealing with and introducing a reasonable variation of our amendment, he is giving city and county managers the authority to write off arrears owed by previous occupiers – meaning property that may otherwise have remained vacant can now be re-let.”

Deputy Deasy said the Minister had lived up to his word in their interactions on commercial rates over the past year. “You consistently gave assurances that you would try to bring the ARV to the lowest level in Waterford – the Dungarvan level – and you did that.

“I’d like to thank you for following through on what you said you would do... I was keeping a close eye on this situation for the past year. But you were consistent with regard to the issue, and it’s turned out to be, in the case of the city, a really excellent result when you consider ratepayers there received a reduction of 20%.”

While county rates were reduced by 5%, some people felt it unfair that the Dungarvan ARV level should remain as is. But “for the most part the feedback I’ve been getting is that they expected it to go up,” Mr Deasy said.

He told Minister Hogan: “I think it’s worth acknowledging the direction that you gave. And everyone’s taking credit for it in Waterford – councillors, officials – but you were consistent”.

This included putting more money into Waterford’s Local Government Fund allocation with a direction that it be used to reduce the rates level locally.

From the floor, Deputy Deasy also said he wanted to acknowledge “the work of Waterford City Chamber of Commerce – Nora Widger and Nick Donnelly – and Dungarvan & West Waterford Chamber of Commerce – Jenny Beresford and Collette Bannon – on this issue.”

Environment Minister Phil Hogan has intimated to John Deasy in the Dáil that business rates could be harmonised “downwards” after Waterford’s local authorities amalgamate next year.

As the new Local Government Bill passed report stage, Deputy Deasy has again argued for changes to be incorporated into the new legislation.

Referring to the harmonisation of rates across councils set to merge in 2014, the Minister suggested to Deputy Deasy that a lowering of rates in Waterford and elsewhere could occur.

“If local authorities are in a position financially to harmonise their rates in one go… we will do so,” the Minister said. “This is about harmonisation of the systems in place downwards, not upwards.

“At the end of the day, it is a matter for the elected members, who have a reserved function on this matter at budget time, to ensure that is the case,” Mr Hogan added.“Any savings that will accrue from the reforms we are undertaking should not impose any additional cost on business.”

Deputy Deasy directly raised the harmonisation issue with Mr Hogan in the Dáil last May, having first addressed it at the Public Accounts Committee a year ago when he pointed to the large variances in annual rateable valuations between the merging councils in Waterford City (€66.22) and County (€69.92), and Dungarvan Town Council (€60.37).

Minister Hogan also indicated he is willing to accept an amendment tabled by the Waterford Fine Gael TD and Dublin Labour deputy Robert Dowds to give discretion to councillors to grant either a full or 50% rebate on rates to owners of vacant business premises. The Bill originally proposed a 50% concession across councils countrywide, “which would be a mistake,” Mr Deasy said.

Another proposal that the Minister is considering is to allow city and county managers waive historical arrears tacked onto a new sale or leasehold.

Mr Hogan agreed with Deputy Dowds at committee stage that incoming businesses shouldn’t be burdened with a legacy debt not of their making, and “I’ve asked the legal people to draft up an appropriate amendment that hits the spirit of what you want.”

A third Deasy/Dowds proposal, namely, a transitional relief scheme that would spread out revaluation increases by rating authorities over three years, is being “constructively” considered by Government officials.