A number of Metropolitan District Councillors have expressed concerns regarding responsibility for the economic development of Waterford City Centre.
The anger was noted as there was no representative from the economic development department present for the second consecutive month at the recent Metropolitan District Meeting.
As a result, a number of queries / concerns went unsolved for another month at least.
While Director of Services for Waterford Council, Fergus Galvin, assured councillors that he would pass on their concerns - Metropolitan Mayor Cllr. Seamus Ryan (Labour) conceded that this simply wasn't good enough.
"A lot of the questions there Mayor, relate to economic development", said Mr. Galvin. "We don't have anyone from economic development present."
At this point, Cllr. Ryan interjected to ask why that was the case.
"This is the second time this is after happening. I don't think it's good enough. As you said, we have a lot of questions. We had this problem before, and it was economic development before."
Debate
Mr. Galvin noted that economic development was not on the management report of the meeting's agenda.
"It only goes on every two or three months, and when its' on the agenda, there would generally be at least one representative present from economic development. I'll be passing a lot of these questions on to my colleagues."
Cllr. Eamon Quinlan (Fianna Fail) then spoke in support of the Mayor, saying this was unsatisfactory for councillors.
"Mayor, you're dead right. This is very unsatisfactory. Could you please instruct economic development to please come to our future meetings."
Cllr. Quinlan said that it 'was obvious' that these type of questions were going to asked.
This stance was supported by the Mayor.
"What'll happen now at the next meeting is that all of these questions are going to be asked again. That's what's clogging up our agendas. I'm asking as Mayor, that a representative at a senior level - and I know that this is not your doing, Fergus - I ask that a representative from every department be present at each meeting in future."
However, it was noted that this could not be guaranteed on account of a previous agreement.
"What we had agreed on going back, and this goes back maybe more than a year or two ago, is that for every meeting, we would have these items on the management agenda - roads, housing, planning and environment reports. On a rota basis then after that, we would bring in economic development, fire and emergency - and maybe arts and culture."
City centre concerns
The debate moved on to concerns regarding the day-to-day management of Waterford City as a whole.
Cllr. Eddie Mulligan (Fianna Fail) said the failings at the meeting highlighted a growing problem.
He called for specifically designated city centre management.
"In the previous council, in the time of Lar Power's time here - we were told that as assistant CEO or Deputy CEO, that we was essentially responsible for the development of the city centre. I've always been arguing about someone specific as a city centre manager and I will go back to this. This meeting actually amplifies it hugely. We are consistently missing someone ultimately responsible for the city centre management, operational readiness and marketing."
Mayor of Waterford City & County, Cllr. Joe Kelly (Independent) was also in agreement with the aforementioned councillors, noting that Dungarvan has a designated Town Manager but Waterford City does not.
"Dungarvan has a manager. I understand Mr. Kehoe [Kieran] is the designated manager for Dungarvan. Yet, the Metropolitan District, of 18 councillors, doesn't have one."
