Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The recent wave of data from the census shows the rude good health of Waterford city with the population thumping forward by 10% in the seven years since the last count. The other cities in our Republic are also advancing, Cork, Galway, Dublin and Limerick by 8%. The radical changes shown in Census 2022 demonstrate that the Ireland 2040 strategy needs a rethink. It is not credible now that our regional cities will grow at double the rate of Dublin, certainly not while Dublin hoovers up most of the capital spending available. Even this week, almost half of the €1 billion HSE capital plan was swerved into Dublin. I want to put on the Dáil record today the derisory allocation of €7 million to University Hospital Waterford, the busiest hospital in the State for the past three months, when all of the other model 8 hospitals were allocated between €60 million and €90 million each. Waterford is the only regional city outgrowing Dublin. The asks for Waterford and the south east have been set and have been largely unactioned for a decade. A fair share of capital funding and strategic effort is sought but still denied in respect of our airport, the N25, the N24, a proper university, our hospital and proper and effective IDA action. Waterford, urbs intacta manet, the untaken city, in many ways under this Government is the forgotten city.

No Minister, no moolah, or largely no moolah. To be fair to the Minister, in his Department, the flagship project of the North Quays has advanced and I thank him sincerely for his personal involvement in that. It was first designated a strategic development zone by Paudie Coffey in a very go-getting phase of his career. The Minister committed €170 million to an investment that will heal an open wound in Waterford and the region. Waterford's 10% population growth is somewhat artificial, however, as the definition of the city excludes parts of the city core that are located in Ferrybank. The independent 2017 boundary commission report recommended the redrawing of the boundary to bring those parts of the city into the administrative zone. That report, if implemented, would have had electoral consequences for two sitting Deputies and so was not advanced at that time. It appears both these political machines are no longer strategically interested in the issue. The North Quays development has radically strengthened the case for taking up the boundary commission report. I urge the Minister to finish the good work he has started by investing in Waterford city and the region, and to address the boundary issue again.

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