Waterford Olympian John Treacy says the city and county need to be more ambitious.
The Chief Executive of Sport Ireland was guest speaker at the Waterford Chamber Annual Dinner last night.
The former athlete, who's from Villierstown, says Waterford is resilient:
"Waterford has overcome quite a lot in terms of big factories closing down through the years; Waterford Crystal would be a huge example. They've been resilient and they've come back and had successes. I would like to see the port developed as the ambition is and have a thriving industry here in the city centre. We have a great city; I walked the mall today and it's fabulous, and it looks great. The whole place looks wonderful and to develop that from a tourism point of view is really, really important."
But he says we need to put ourselves out there:
"We have a peach of a county; I know it's a very well kept secret but it is absolutely gorgeous, and I think we need to promote it a bit more and promote ourselves. Waterford people tend to be a bit laid-back at times. I think we need to put ourselves out there and develop the city and county some more and have the ambition. There's great examples throughout Waterford in terms of success in recent times, the Greenway would be a perfect example of what success looks like."
