Ms Nora Widger:

I thank the Chairman for inviting Waterford Chamber of Commerce to make a presentation to the joint committee. I was recently appointed President of Waterford Chamber of Commerce and I am joined today by my fellow board member Mr. Jonathan Earl. Since 1787 the chamber has offered a voice to Waterford business. At present its membership ranges from the smallest SMEs to multinationals with a base in Waterford. The chamber of commerce represents a cross-section of commercial life and is committed to working closely with all who champion Waterford.

SEEDS is the acronym for the south east economic development strategy, which Senator Cullinane is working on as a rapporteur for the committee. In a way, seeds are also the topic of my presentation, in which I will speak about what Waterford Chamber of Commerce sees as the seeds of economic recovery for the city and the region. While I want to take the opportunity to look to a better future and how we might reach it, we cannot ignore the real and serious economic challenge we face, with more than 55,000 people on the live register in the region in May. It is no coincidence that just 23.1% of people in the south east who have completed their full-time education have a third-level qualification, compared with a national average of 29%. In short, not enough job opportunities are being created in the region and too few of those out of work have the skills for the available jobs.

Having outlined the challenges, I will now strike a more positive note by mentioning the first-class employers that are currently operating in Waterford. There are more than 30 IDA-supported multinational companies in Waterford city and county, employing well over 5,000 people. Our success stories include TEVA, Honeywell, Sun Life Financial and Bausch & Lomb, which currently employs more than 1,200 people. We are also very proud of Genzyme, which employs more than 550 people at its Waterford site. An equally welcome new arrival is Nypro Healthcare. In the indigenous sector, Eishtec is an outsourced contact centre that was established by three local people who had worked together previously and now employs more than 400 people in Waterford, although as recently as May 2011 it had only nine employees. Two entrepreneurs who used to work together in a pharmaceutical multinational in Waterford have set up EirGen Pharma, which employs around 80 people. It is a great example of the spin-off benefits to be gained from building expertise in world-class manufacturing. In addition, there was announcement last May from a WIT spin-out company called FeedHenry of the creation of an extra 100 jobs and an investment of €7 million, which was also very welcome.

Whether we are talking about multinational or indigenous companies, the key for Waterford and the south east is to have operations that are constantly moving up the value chain, so that they are less exposed to relocation to cheaper sites overseas. We also need to avoid over-reliance on a single employer, as happened with Waterford Crystal.

The food sector is also important to Waterford. Glanbia is investing €150 million in a world-class milk processing facility at Belview. Also in the agri-business sector, Dawn Meats is creating 65 additional jobs, so agribusiness is a very important sector for Waterford and the south east. While the unemployment situation in Waterford and the south east is grave, we are certainly not without hope or without the drive and energy to achieve the region's potential.

Late last month, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, gave approval for Waterford Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Carlow to continue their work towards a merger with a view to being re-designated as technological university of the south east. The provision of a university in the south east is of tremendous importance and rapid progress towards delivery on this overdue issue is perhaps the highest-impact intervention that could be made to accelerate the region’s journey towards economic recovery. The university will act as a catalyst for increased inward investment but it will also foster emerging enterprises and provide a pool of skilled graduates for those companies with growth potential. As well as the direct economic impact, there will also be tremendous spin-off effects as Waterford and the south east no longer see the annual brain drain of some of our highest-achieving young people to universities in other regions in what often becomes a permanent relocation as they go on to build their lives in the university cities.

In addition to university-level education and the related fourth-level research, development and innovation, we also need to see more targeted training interventions to allow those who lose their jobs in traditional factories, shops or call centres or who have been out of the labour market for some time, to get the skills needed for those jobs that are now available. Similarly, those in low-skilled employment need specific support to position themselves better for roles in the smart economy.

As Waterford counts down to its 1,100-year celebrations in 2014, the rich history of Ireland’s oldest city is captured brilliantly through the three top-class museums in our Viking triangle. Tourism and hospitality is an important sector for Waterford and the south east. We have been fortunate to see the House of Waterford Crystal flourish. This year, an estimated 160,000 visitors will tour the facility with four out of five of those coming from outside of Ireland.

The infrastructure work completed over the last five years leaves Waterford much more accessible from Dublin with over a €1 billion invested between the M9 motorway and the N25 Waterford city bypass. However, there are two major infrastructure assets in Waterford that are currently under-used but which offer huge potential for further growth.

Waterford Airport currently has direct passenger flights operated by Flybe that connect the south east with Birmingham and Manchester as well as onward destinations through those two hubs. A key priority for the chamber of commerce at the moment is to see the airport sustained and developed further with the resumption of a London service and further investment to copper-fasten its future. Direct air access to our biggest trading partner is obviously vital. Waterford Airport supports considerable direct and indirect employment. A relatively modest investment in a runway extension at the regional airport would allow it to cater for a wider range of aircraft and this is part of the key to attracting new carriers.

Given our location as the closest port of Ireland to southern Britain and mainland Europe, the port of Waterford at Belview in south County Kilkenny is another key piece of infrastructure located in the south east but serving a much wider area. The port is of national significance and this was formally recognised in the national ports policy published in March. The south east is somewhat unusual in that it has two ports of national significance – Waterford and Rosslare – and another of regional significance in New Ross. Our challenge is to ensure that each port develops to its maximum potential and that taken together they deliver the greatest value to the region and the country. For Ireland Inc. to continue trading successfully globally, it is clear that we need to make more efficient use of our port capacity and reduce the reliance on Dublin port. If Ireland is to offer competitive shipping services for exporters then we need to make maximum use of all our existing port capacity and not continue to over-centralise in Dublin port.

As well as addressing that imbalance in a way that benefits all businesses which ship goods internationally, supporting the development of an appropriate suite of shipping services at the south east ports will also allow us to better leverage the massive road infrastructure investment that has already been made. Having mentioned some of their blue-chip clients in Waterford and conscious that they continue to focus intensively on the south east, I am not about to criticise IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland for their work in the city and the wider region. Rather, I ask that they keep up the good work, maintain the momentum that is beginning to build and also to reach out to the various Waterford stakeholders to ascertain if there is anything additional we can usefully do to support their efforts. I would be particularly keen to know that we are developing and maintaining a sound strategic land bank and turnkey business premises for investors with the potential to create sustainable employment. Have we the sites and properties ready to go for the next generation of companies? If not, we must act now. Not a single job creation opportunity can be lost for the want of a base location.

Given the jobs crisis that exists in the south east, Waterford Chamber of Commerce would argue that the region should now qualify for the highest available level of incentives to support investment that leads to sustainable job creation. Indeed, we would see merit in a special designation of certain locations for development once there was a corresponding commitment to create and sustain employment in growth sectors.

Along with the more obvious hard infrastructure of roads and third and fourth-level education, the task of attracting additional foreign direct investment and supporting home-grown companies to grow is undoubtedly made easier where there is a vibrant urban core to a region’s gateway city. With disposable incomes in the south east lagging behind the national average and dragging down consumer spending and confidence, this is an acute challenge for Waterford. Some great work is under way by Waterford City Council and its partners, including the chamber of commerce, to revitalise the city centre.

In mentioning the city council, I also welcome the decision by Government to give local authorities a stronger and more formalised role in promoting economic development as part of the local government reform programme. This makes sense as it recognises the unique contribution that local authorities can make in helping to create a business-friendly environment that supports enterprises – whether this is a craft jeweller starting his or her own market stall or a multinational looking at potential sites for a 500-job manufacturing plant. Indeed, given that small start-ups have some of the greatest potential to flourish and to put down deep roots in Waterford, I know that the council will continue to support that sector so that one and two-person companies starting out do not flounder for the want of low-cost but high-value support.

In the wider national context, Waterford Chamber of Commerce endorses the alternative Chambers Ireland ten-point plan for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Key taxation initiatives and reforms will also be sought in the chambers of commerce movement’s national pre-budget submission. Taken together, these interventions have the potential to create up to 30,000 new jobs in this sector. As a country, we need ambition, vision and drive so that working together we can deliver on the Taoiseach’s challenge to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business.

I thank the Chairman on behalf of Waterford Chamber of Commerce for inviting us to input to the committee's discussions today. I wish you and your colleagues, including Senator Cullinane from Waterford, all the best with your work on the south east economic development strategy. We hope the seeds planted now will bear rich fruit for years to come.