Regional Aid map 
must be redrawn

John Deasy

The regional aid or investment aid guidelines for foreign companies investing in areas of high unemployment need to amended immediately by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.

The amounts involved should be increased and weighted more towards areas suffering the highest levels of unemployment in order to incentivise foreign investment in regions outside of Dublin, Cork and Galway.

IDA chief executive Barry O’Leary said this week that even with regional incentives, it was proving increasingly difficult to convince companies to invest outside Dublin and Cork.

Ever since Mr. O’Leary took over the IDA in 2008 there has been an increased concentration of jobs created by foreign firms in Dublin, Cork and Galway. I do not believe the IDA has any serious policy for attracting investment in the regions outside of these urban areas and the problem is getting worse not better.

Research carried out this year by professors at NUI Maynooth found that as much as 82% of jobs created here by overseas firms in the past six years have been centred around Dublin, Cork and Galway. They found that almost 80% of jobs created by new foreign firms in the last decade were located in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

These three cities also accounted for 62% of job gains in existing foreign firms and less than half of the job losses in that period. The process of concentration in these three cities has accelerated since the onset of the economic crisis in 2007.

The senior consultants at WRH involved in the negotiations with the region's other hospitals are scapegoating politicians for their lack of success in critical negotiations concerning the status of the Regional Hospital.

As the most vocal public supporter of maintaining the regional hospital's status, I believe people who work at the regional hospital need to understand the background to the current situation and begin legitimately questioning the individuals who are responsible for representing WRH. 

I have arranged meetings in the past with these senior consultants from Waterford along with the CEO and senior officials from the HSE and government TDs from the region. The performance of these senior consultants was under whelming to say the least. They are the ones who needed to make the argument based on medical best practice and they did not perform. In my opinion others from the regional hospital need to step in immediately to rescue this situation before its too late.

I would contend that the general issue of Waterford Regional Hospital and the South East hospital grouping is not as simple as it might seem. Some of the other consultants and hospitals within the South East Hospital group are leaning towards leaving the existing structure and creating partnerships with hospitals in Dublin where university hospital facilities are available. 

That is their choice if the Hospital Trust structure goes ahead. The senior consultants at WRH have lost the debate with Kilkenny and may be losing the debate with Wexford.

I and the other Waterford TDs were heavily criticised for not attending a meeting last week about the future of Waterford Regional Hospital. I've never actually experienced anything like it in my political career. I had texted, emailed and spoken to some of the senior consultants in question and informed them that I wasn't available to attend the meeting. They accepted my apologies but for some reason that information was not passed on to the meeting or on local radio the following day. 

In my opinion, politicians are being scapegoated due to the lack of success in these negotiations. I think Waterford has been outmanoeuvred in discussions and the blame for that has been shifted in our direction. 

I have a record of the emails and texts communications I had with senior consultants at Waterford Regional Hospital where I indicated formally the reason for my non-attendance at the hospital meeting last week and the efforts I was making with Government Officials. 

I will continue to do my job and I will continue to do what I can to maintain the status of Waterford Regional Hospital as the regional base, but I won’t be scapegoated because the talks being carried on with other hospitals around the South East aren't going very well.