School Water Charges; School Books & Crests

With so much doom and gloom and so many issues around, I suppose its' natural that some will get overlooked. One such issue is the subject of water charges in schools. According to EU law, all non-domestic water users (everyone except private residences) must pay the cost of the provision of clean water.

By and large, I think that's fair. Although when you think that it includes charities, hospitals and hospices, for example - perhaps there should be some distinction amongst non-domestic users.

By the way, the Government have agreed to pay the cost for domestic users - what would you say are the chances of that?

As mentioned up top, my problem is with schools at the moment. This directive has been in place for the past two years, since 2008, with schools paying €3.50 per pupil that year and €4.50 per pupil in 2009. However from 2010 schools will be liable for the full commercial cost and that will be substantially higher - many thousands of euro higher.

I am on the Board of Management of a local national school which has been classified as 'disadvantaged' and I can tell you our estimated usage cost for next year - for just HALF the year Jan-June - is €7,000! Now this is a staggering amount and I can say without fear that it is money that the school quite simply does not have. Full stop.

Now admittedly, the school I am talking about is an old one, in an old building, with old-fashioned water systems, installed when we still thought that the provision of clean water was free. Indeed, over a recent weekend we shut off the water for the entire school and still lost over 3,000 gallons! That's with the water turned off!

Assuming that the school is granted money under the summer works scheme for next year (ironically only announced a month ago even tbough this has been on the horizon for the last two years) which is for water conservation measures, then usage would hopefully come down but that still leaves us - and I'm sure, other schools - with this huge charge for the first six months of next year.

And you can be sure that the burden will ultimately fall back on already hard-pressed parents. It is too terrible to contemplate that perhaps we mightn't even be successful in our application for the summer works scheme which would mean a full year usage charge of around €14,000! Show me a primary school that has that kind of money swilling around in its' coffers!

The City Council set the rate but by law, we must pass on the full commercial cost, as directed by the Department of Environment. I will certainly be examining through the upcoming budget process if there is anything that can be done for schools but this issue is literally around the corner and coming at us very fast. It is being lost in all the other terrible things that are being contemplated as the moment but it is one that I believe Government must revisit.

Schools just cannot afford this charge - and neither, by and large, can parents who already contribute heavily to the cost of the running of the schools in our so-called free education system. I am calling on the Government to maintain the current charging regime of €4.50 per pupil, which is fair and manageable and still encourages water conservation.

On a related matter, I am also calling on all schools in the Waterford area to examine if there are any measures that they can take which would alleviate the financial burden on parents.

One such issue would be for schools to come together and decide on the books which they will use - and to stick with those books - same editions etc, for a long period of time (except in the case of curriculum change obviously). We should not be allowing the printing companies to dictate the amount of edition changes (and thereby purchases of new books) that parents must buy.

I recently threw out about €3-400 worth of Junior Cert books, all in good condition with the price tags still on them. There wasn't a book which cost less than €25! Some were considerably more. I was able to pass on just one single book to a relative! Schools can and should do something about this.

Another step schools could take to to sell school crests separately - thereby allowing parents to shop around for cheaper alternatives in jumpers etc. They also need to relax some rules about uniform. If the uniform consists of say, a grey skirt or pants and maybe a green jumper; any grey skirt/pants should do (within reason) along with any green jumper (with the crest sewn on).

We should all be working together in these tough times to help each other. Not fighting against each other. Schools, in my experience, do an excellent and most valuable job. A little determination and pragmatism would go a long way towards reducing the cost of sending a child to school.

Most people are experiencing some degree of pain at the moment. Some more than others. Schools need to realise this and make some practical changes to assist parents where they can.

Waterford Bright Ideas Campaign

I must congratulate Liam Dunne and Cian Foley who, between them initiated and implemented a 'Bright Ideas' campaign through the Up The Déise website over the past few months. I have just finished reading a copy of the finished document which I picked up the Mayors office last week.

The ideas have been broken down into different categories: tourism; festivals, entertainment & sport; city presentation; business, retail & planning; education; environment and finally road infrastructure & traffic.

Some ideas are within the remit of the City Council (although not all) and should certainly be followed up on. I would suggest that the document should also be presented to the County Council as well as some other representative bodies like the Chamber of Commerce, Council of Trade Unions, Construction Industry Federation and indeed local TD's as some of the points suggested need to be changed at National level (rates deductions, allowing people on the dole to work etc.).

Overall it was a very positive document insofar as peoples' ultimate and deep concern for Waterford and for its' future is obvious.

I am happy to say that some issues which were raised are already being addressed. For example the commemoration of the Irish Flag and the move of Waterford Crystal into the ESB buildings next summer to name but two.

On the Waterford Crystal issue, it has to be said that the City Manager Michael Walsh has really, through his Trojan efforts on this project, saved the blushes of the government in my opinion. His efforts deserve mention and recognition. Waterford owes him a great debt on this one and in time, the huge impact that this decision will have for Waterford and for our potential will surely been seen.

Other issues in the document I personally found very interesting and I will certainly be following up on some in my capacity as a City Councillor and on the relevant committees on which I represent the citizens of this City.

The North Quays (pictured above showing a Tall Ship sailing past the huge, derelict hulk of the once imposing Ardree Hotel) featured heavily, as did WIT and its' continued struggle to achieve University Status.

One of the main things that I personally got from the document is the synergies that people feel could be created through links with other agencies/councils/bodies.

I, for one, certainly welcome the Bright Ideas document. It is great to see people putting their heads together for the benefit of our city and our community. The challenge is how to ensure that it isn't just left at that. Perhaps some kind of Farmleigh for Waterford might be a good next step to extrapolate a 'to do' list, get buy-in from the major players, and keep the momentum going to make Waterford a better place to live.

Strategy for Higher Education

The Minister for Education & Science, Mr Batt O'Keeffe, has been saying all year that he is expecting the High Level Group on Higher Education Strategy to report to him before the end of this year. Will they? What will they say? Has the concession to the Green Party on fees upset the apple cart?

I've been having a look at the Higher Education Authority web-site www.hea.ie/ where all the submissions which have been made to that group are published both in full and in summary format. (The FUSE one is particularly good.)

There are a considerable number concerning WITs application to be designated as a University. Now more than ever we must not let this ball drop. In these straitened times when jobs are deserting the entire nation, that drop is being felt even more acutely in Waterford and the Southeast with the continued and accelerated haemorrage of jobs from our traditional sectors: manufacturing, construction & agriculture.

How long more does our city have to wait to get what is rightfully ours. How long more must we wait before we have have equity for our children and their children in this region?

How long more - having hurdled every obstacle to date - can we be denied what will so obviously allow us to contribute more to this small nation and her recovery?

Martin Cullen was rightfully proud of his achievement at the official opening of the magnificent new bridge and bypass recently. However it will be a hollow victory if all it is used for is to ferry away our youth, or our graduates or indeed, our jobs.

We have the infrastructure 90% in place and with the completion of the M9 next year (we hear) a huge challenge will be to ensure that a University is delivered. On the back of that delivery will follow investment, jobs, innovation, purchasing power, productivity and a better outlook for us all.

Surely these are noble aims to which we have a right to aspire. I look forward to the report of the High Level Group. It is frustrating to be so constantly thwarted when what we are aspiring to is so obviously the right thing, and our right.

But we must persevere and I hope and trust that the High Level Group will concur with all the Internationally renowned experts when they said that WIT is 'already operating at University level'.

So will we see the report before the end of the year? That's 52 days from today. I, for one, am counting.

Mattie McGrath TD and those Drink Driving Comments!

Has Mattie McGrath (pictured above with the Taoiseach) been drinking I ask myself? I mean really? For anyone to make such a badly thought-out statement that drinking could actually be good for nervous drivers! Is this man be serious?

Aside from Fianna Fáil delivering this country into ruin; aside from closing childrens operating theatres: aside from all of that - this is the issue that Fianna Fáil back benchers choose to revolt on?

There is so much wrong with this whole argument that I scarcely know where to begin and I have to say that I am totally behind Noel Dempsey on this one.

This whole rural argument thing is getting ridiculous: what's wrong with rural farmers, who, Mr McGrath tells us have NO friends or neighbours in the world to speak of that they could share a lift with, heading down to the pub (his only social outlet on the planet and without which - if you follow the logic to its' illogical conclusion - said Farmer/rural dwellers life would cease to have any meaning) for a non-alcoholic beverage? Say a pot of tea, or a pint of rock-shandy? Same company. Same venue. No deathly alcohol influence on the drive home! No pedestrian left dead because of a swerve. No driver left paralysed because of impaired co-ordination.

There are scientific, validated tests demonstrating the effect that just one pint has on the average drivers behaviour. I have seen them. I was a member of the National Safety Council, the fore-runner of the RSA for many years and that committee did much work educating the public as to the dangers of drink driving.

The bottom line is that if people want to drink alcohol, they should not drive. And if they want to drive they should not drink alcohol. Is this cruel? Not if you are one of the many many families who have lost loved ones either through being the victim of a drink driver or through drinking and driving themselves. The sad fact is that drinking and driving causes death. After just one drink you are many times more likely to be involved in an accident than you are without any alcohol. FACT.

We have acknowledged for many years that we in this country have a very warped relationship with alcohol. We need to grow up. No-one is saying not to be social. No-one is even saying not to go to the local pub. Just plan not to drink and drive. That's all.

Will the family who lose their daughter, or uncle, or grandfather - directly as a result of someone who had just the one, killing or injuring them - think it's okay? Will they thank Mattie McGrath and his followers? Or will they think that perhaps it might have been worth the self-control of abstaining from that one pint? I think so.

Yes there are other problems and issues that need to be dealt with. But none of them take away from the fact that this one also needs to be dealt with.

This isn't make believe. Real people die as a result of drivers who have had just one drink. But that must be a price that Mattie McGrath thinks is worth paying.

I do not.

N25 Waterford City Bypass Opened Today

It was a great (but very very cold) experience to be out at the new N25 Waterford City Bypass opening earlier today. There was a good turnout from the City, County and from Kilkenny to do the official nicities and I must say that all spoke very well.

Credit where credit is due though and I think its' fair to say that if Martin Cullen hadn't been Minister for Transport at the time, we might still be waiting for this particular piece of infrastructrure and indeed the new M9 to Dublin which should be opened within a year. So fair play to him, he has certainly delivered for Waterford and the South East in this score.

The bridge is due to open for traffic frfom about 4.30pm today and I sincerely hope that it will take some of the heavier traffic out of the city and make life easier for those travelling the Quays or up over the older part of town which had also become something of a rat-run for these huge trucks - in an area that was never designed to take that kind of traffic.

It also ties in nicely with the plans announced recently to claim back our Quays from traffic in conjunction with the delivery of a new iconic tourism building which was announced last week.

People have taken to calling the bridge 'the cat flap' which I think myself is slightly disparaging to Kilkenny people but they seem to like it. And at this stage, in the absence of any other name, it might just stick.

Personally I think we should come up with some inspirational name. My suggestion, for what its worth would be Bridge of the Sun or Droichead na Gréine! I believe the harbour was many centuries ago named Cuan na Gréine - or Harbour of the Sun. I think that's a gorgeous name and the new name for the bridge would refer back to that old one.

So there you have it. At last it's open. we should stand back and enjoy it. It's a good news day for Waterford.

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.

Motorway to Open as far as Kilkenny for Christmas

A friend pointed out an article to me today, carried in this weeks' Kilkenny People newspaper stating that the new Motorway from Waterford as far as Kilkenny will be open before Christmas. Well hallelujah if that is so! What bliss not to have to drive that absolute excuse for a road that Kilkenny County Council has foisted on us since time immemorial.

The article sadly details that many people lost their lives on the road as it is currently - which is a terrible indictment on those who allowed it, as a major inter-urban National PRIMARY route, to exist in its current state for so long. Shame on them.

Hopefully that is now almost at an end and before long we can look at halving - yes, halving - the amount of time it takes to drive the mere 30 miles to Kilkenny from a disgraceful 1 hour, to 30 minutes. (For those who are interested the photo shows a glimpse of the 'Main Road' as it passes Jerpoint Abbey - the absolute worst stretch IMHO).

I know people are concerned about Waterfords' present and indeed, our future but there can be no doubt but that the opening up of that road will play a huge part in opening up Waterfords' opportunities for inward investment and for easing costs. It can't come soon enough. Roll on Christmas!

Will The Government Last?

Maybe I'm reading the signs all wrong but I don't think the Greens are going to pull the plug this weekend. (If they do, expect an apologetic blog next week!) I think the Greens are still naive enough to think that they can achieve a lot if they stay. I think the trouble for the Government is going to come from the Fianna Fáil back-benchers.

Lets face it: all the indications are, that whenever the next election occurs, Fianna Fáil are going to lose their shirts and that all but the safest seats will be lost. So a back-bencher has nothing to lose and everything to gain locally by being seen to stand up to local cuts.

I use Michael Lowry as an example. I know he's not a FF back-bencher but it illustrates the principle. Regardless of the consequences, Lowry has let it be known that he will withdraw his support for the government if Tipperary Institute (his local college with a pupil-teacher ratio at a reported 1 to 4!) is closed - as per the recommendations in the McCarthy report. This guarantees him returning to Dáil Eireann by a grateful local electorate.

Now say if you're a FF back-bencher in a dodgy seat. What have you got to lose by seeking to save your own seat - and ONLY your own seat - by pulling down the government on some local issue of principle close to your constituents hearts? The electorate in Ireland have shown time and time again that they will reward TD's who put local interests ahead of anything else - even the so-called National Interest.

All of the work that's going into re-negotiating the Programme for Government at the moment with its aspirations to lessen TD numbers (some hope!) and to reform the expenses system is merely tinkering around the edges of what is a broken system. I feel sorry for TD's in one sense: you get elected on a promise of what you can deliver or will do - and once you have your knees under the table you discover pretty quickly that you can deliver nothing at all and can do fairly little either. This is the ultimate frustration of politics. You aspire to change the world but the system is designed to stay the same. So you content yourself with keeping your own personal, local electorate happy. Telling them what they want to hear even if this means sacrificing the greater good to do so.

So that's my prediction for what it's worth. I reckon Fianna Fáil will survive the coming Green Conference but will have a much tougher time getting a painful and cutting budget through their own back-benches.

To Pee Or Not To Pee.....

I have just been listening to the prinicpal of a Cork secondary school on the News At One who hit the headlines after writing to parents of pupils asking them to send in toilet rolls! This - though a novel approach - is not a new problem. I have heard of schools rationing and counting squares on toilet rolls with limits on how much a child can have, depending on 'what they are doing'!

Now this is not born from anything in said schools other than that toilet roll purchase can run into tens of thousands of euro worth - in what are becoming ever tighter budgets in schools.

I myself sit on a national school Board of Management and I can confirm that we mostly spend our entire meetings trying to solve problems related to money and the lack of it. Where we should be discussing the pupils and their development.

I noted on the news that the Department of Education sent in a statement to the effect that the school in questions' capitation budget had increased. True - as have the schools costs, helped in no small part by additional costs which have been introduced for schools in recent years - with no subsequent additonal funding to cover these. Costs such as waste charges, water rates (schools are not exempt), wage agreements, along with cost increases in every other area practically that you can think of.

Does the Department really expect anyone to believe that the funding they provide actually covers the cost of running a school? Do they have children in schools themselves? All parents know the energies (and ingenuity) that schools expend on raising funds.

I know schools that tell the children they can afford heating or activities - but not both! And I have no reason to assume they aren't being straight up. Our teachers and schools (most of them) do a very good job but any extra energy should be spent tackling those who fall through the cracks, those who have additional problems -not fund-raising for loo-rolls. If my childrens' school asked, I'd happily stump up some toilet rolls - as I stump up for the many myriad fund-raising activities in their schools. One or two rolls doesn't make much of a dent in a budget but start trying to pay for the amount needed for a school of say, 500 children? That's a different prospect.

That's one big load of ...........

Red Kettles' Play In The Park

I attended the Red Kettle Theatre Company production of A Midsummer Nights' Dream in the Big Top last night. What a great night! What a different, magical, colourful experience. At only €10 a head it was a steal. And, thanks to the good people of Waterford, it was packed out.

The set (bad photo above, sorry - taken on my phone afterwards) was spectacular and extremely well used: climbed on by Puck and Oberon, slept on by Titania (the wonderful Jenni Ledwell), danced on, fought on, loved on - even hosting a brawl in a pool!

Red Kettle really seem to come into their own with Shakespeare! Last year with Romeo and Juliet (unbelievably good) and now this offering. I really think that they are not getting the national acclaim which they so richly deserve.

I know that I could be seen as biased towards the company but it is so long since any involvement I try to look at their work with an objective eye. And I have to say, that if what we saw in Waterford last night, had been showing in Dublin, or Cork, or Galway, the national media would have been all over it like a swine-flu bug!

Keep up the good work Red Kettle. You are a credit to Waterford.

I can't finish without mentioning the 'locals' especially the younger ones: Puck played by Freddie Quinlan, Hermia played by Holly Browne, Lysander played by Alex Browne. Anne Riordan as Helena and all the many more. I see blossoming careers in time and real honest to God talent. Not of course forgetting the maestro Ben Hennessy who has a gift here!

At the very least I wish them as much pleasure and enjoyment as I got from my involvement with Red Kettle and other productions when I was their age. Oh and Bottom - Seamus Power - and all the 'players' were also superb. What a great night out!

Review as it appears in this mornings' Irish Times

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
People’s Park, Waterford

Ben Hennessy’s spirited and inventive production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an adventurous, fun-filled, family-friendly venture which remains utterly faithful to Shakespeare’s play. Despite being better subtitled Play in the Car Park, Hennessey creates a forest within Fosset’s Big Top circus tent with a landscape of layered plants which are laddered up towards the canvas ceiling to conceal entrances and exits in a magical way. Joe Harney’s original composition conspires with Chris Tyler’s sound design to enhance the supernatural atmosphere, and the purple and yellow hues of Conor Nolan’s lights also create an otherworldliness within the natural environment of the dressed tent.

A community collaboration, the play is performed by a mix of professional and amateur actors, but the less experienced cast members certainly step up to the mark, enlivening the subplot of the star-crossed lovers. Holly Browne and Anne O’Riordan, in particular, display a sophisticated understanding and enunciation of the verse. Meanwhile, a group of young performers from the area create a flurry of sparkling fairies, dancing across the earthen floor.

However, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is always stolen by the rude mechanicals, and with Seamus Nolan as the asinine Bottom/Pyramus, Ben Quinlan as Flute/Thisbe and Jamie Murphy as Starveling/The Wall, the best bits of Red Kettle’s production fall within the play-within-the-play device. At €10 a ticket, the Big Top was bursting with families, who remained engaged and animated until the closing moments, when “fairy time” descended on the night outside and the children were carried out home to their beds. This democratic pricing is to be applauded as much as the democratic production structure, which ensured that this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream involved and engaged with as large a Waterford audience as possible.
SARA KEATING