More Great Things About Waterford

I was driving from a Waterford Area Partnership Board meeting this evening which was held in FÁS and I passed the re-developed Presentation Convent in Slievekeale which now houses the Rowe Creavin Medical Practice and Halley Solicitors. What a fantatsic job has been done up there! And a far cry from the poor, decimated and dishevelled old Ursuline Convent building.

This redevelopment really is one of Waterfords' gems and checking out their website I see it also houses a café. That's two new coffee stops for me to try out in the not-too-distant future (the Lemon Tree Café in the Theatre Royal being the other one).

The old Presentation Convent is an example of how an old and under-used piece of our city history and architecture can be brought both smack bang up to date and into everyday use with a little imagination, a lot of belief and determination - and no little finance I am sure! But it is safe to say that it must rank now amongst Waterfords' great treasures.

Halleys and Mark Rowe and Ita Creavin and all those involved in this redevelopment deserve a great deal of thanks for a job really well done. It is another example of the great drive, enthusiasm and determination that Waterford people have in spades.

I wish - and I know I won't be thanked for saying it - that those Waterford people who expend huge energies being negative and knocking this great city would sit back and take a look. Yes, we have challenges - we always have had and probably always will on some level or other. But there are GREAT things happening, great plans being laid - and Waterford has never stopped striving to be the best it can be despite the many challenges thrown our way. I wish people would spend half the energy they use moaning, on getting out there and being part of the solution.

Last night, the City Manager made public an initiative that has been worked on for the past 6 months concerning getting Waterford Crystal up and running again (in a small way initially it's true), manufacturing crystal in this ancient city. This facility has an aim of bringing 250,000 tourists (minimum) to our city EVERY YEAR. (This is what the project must achieve to break even). An interim solution is hoped to be up and running with 80 jobs or so by as early as next May in the ESB offices and old bonded stores behind it - including a tank furnace. It will be 'real' Waterford Crystal.

The medium term aim is to build out into the River Suir behind the Clock Tower over the next 4 years and deliver an iconic tourism building which will underpin the city centre as well as giving us back our 'most noble quay in Europe'.

What a great vision. The sooner the better I say.

And just to round it all up, I mentioned at the top of this piece that I had been at a Waterford Area Partnership meeting earlier this evening where we reviewed the performance of the Services to Unemployed measure and took a look at how it has performed and what it focusses on. It turns out that over the last decade or so over 680 jobs have been created - over 80% of which were still in place 3 years later - through the work that goes on in that one measure (in collaboration with other agenies and partners of course which is how the partnership works). Now you don't get that announced in the newspapers but if another agency had created almost 700 jobs in 10 years they'd have the Taoiseach down announcing it (before they were even in place no doubt).

So take a bow, everyone in the Partnership. There is a lot of good work going on that never gets highlighted but which is absolutely crucial. I, for one, am proud to be a small part of it.

It's time for us all to start being positive about our city. The future is bright and we are capable of making it so. All we need is a little faith.