Outgoing Mayor's Speech June 2009
Issued : Wednesday 24 June, 2009
At the outset I would like to especially welcome the newly elected Councillors, Cllr. John Cummins, Cllr. Dick Roche and Cllr. Gary Wyse – my heartiest congratulations on your election and I look forward to working with you on the Council over the next five years.
Being elected for the first time is a tremendous achievement and it is indeed a great honour to be elected by your community – this honour brings with it not alone a great deal of hard work but also a duty and responsibility to uphold the trust placed in you by the people of this City.
I should also like to commiserate with and pay tribute to those members of the Council who were unsuccessful in the recent local elections, Cllr. Tom Murphy, Cllr. Mary O’Halloran and Cllr. Joe Kelly. Politics and elections in particular can be very cruel and the results of the election should in no way detract from the tremendous amount of dedicated service rendered by each of the three out-going councillors during their terms of office.
The election of a new Mayor tonight marks the beginning of a new and challenging chapter in the long history of our City Council.
We are in a time of great economic uncertainty. As a City, we will face huge challenges over the next few years, challenges that will test the resolve of this Council and each and every member here.
However this City, the office of Mayor and of civic government in Waterford has a very long and proud tradition dating back almost 1,000 years. We have faced and survived a great deal worse in the past and have come through stronger on each occasion. Look to our motto “Urbs Intacta Manet - Waterfordia” – it may have been penned in different times and when challenges were of an entirely different nature but it should serve as a symbol of our resolve to overcome the present difficulties and lead our City to a brighter and more prosperous future.
I think it’s fitting to take a moment or two at this time to reflect on the work of the Council over the past five years and to acknowledge the achievements, to acknowledge the progress and to acknowledge the commitment of Council, the commitment of the Manager and staff of the Council and the commitment of the wider community to the ongoing development of our City.
It is difficult at times to comprehend the scale of change during these years – much of what has happened has been achieved on an incremental basis and there is much that has been taken for granted. However when you reflect on the totality of the achievement it is clear that progress on a seismic scale has taken place during the lifetime of the out-going Council – progress that will put the City in pole position to take full advantage when the economic outlook lifts.
It has been the policy of the out-going Council and previous Councils to move our City forward, to address many of the inherent structural deficits that had caused our City to slip in the urban hierarchy of Ireland and that has cost us countless opportunities for inward investment and stifled our growth.
Our City has suffered from deficits in its basic infrastructure and from a perception of difficult access through roads, rail, air and sea that has made the attraction of inward investment to Waterford a very difficult sell.
During the lifetime of the outgoing Council, just witness the truly enormous targeted investments that have addressed many of our core deficits.
Look at our roads for instance, we opened the outer ring road in 2005 followed by the radial access routes such as the Old Kilmeaden, the Carrickphierish and the Williamstown Roads.
In a few short months road access to our City will be greatly improved by the magnificent new second river crossing, to be followed by the new motorway to Dublin. These will dramatically improve access to the rest of the Country and change dramatically the perception of road access to Waterford.
These developments have been matched elsewhere by investment at our Port and by plans for the major expansion of our Airport. Waterford Institute of Technology continues to grow in reputation and deserves to be re-designated as the University of the South East on academic criteria alone.
We have invested almost €80m in our water services in recent years to provided the City with a long term secure and safe drinking water supply. This will allow for the future growth and expansion of both the residential and business base of Waterford. Equally as important, we are currently commissioning a new waste water treatment plant at Belview that will fully treat all waste water from the City and its environs. This facility will lead to an immediate and dramatic improvement in the river water quality and will also provide an essential piece of infrastructure for new industry locating here.
Waterford Council has invested heavily in the social fabric and social infrastructure of the City ranging from social housing, to the Arts, Sports and Recreation.
We have built 500 new council houses during the period, providing much needed good quality new homes. Significant additional accommodation has been provided through the Rental Accommodation Scheme, Part V acquisitions and through our continued financial support for the voluntary housing sector.
Through the Remedial Works Schemes we have refurbished over 1,000 City Council houses. This has made a huge improvement in the living conditions for many of our families and for our elderly citizens.
The council has also led the way in the provision of affordable houses which provided genuinely affordable housing alternatives for many young couples and families.
In the area of parks and open spaces, over €3m was invested in the People’s Park which restored pride of place to the Park and has breathed new life into a truly magnificent and unique parkland in the city centre. It gives me real pleasure to see the Park now being actively used by hundreds of people every day from the skateboarders, to children in the playgrounds, joggers, walkers and for the less active, a place for moments of quite relaxation.
The Council has also opened smaller parks at Farranshoneen and Wyse Park as part of our policy of ensuring that people across the city have access to parks.
In sports, the Council, in a public private partnership, has totally redeveloped the Regional Sports Centre and it can now truly bear the title “Regional” with the development of a new swimming pool, state of the art gym, sports hall, new stand, car parking and playing pitches.
I could go on and on - there is so much more that I could refer to that has been positive over the past five years, so many more areas where the Council has led development and has invested in the future and in the people of our city – developments that give us hope for a bright future.
I would like to place on record my appreciation of the commitment and professionalism of the City Council Staff lead by the City Manager Michael Walsh. Their passion and dedication is matched by their courtesy and support to the elected members. They are a credit to the City and we are all very proud of them.
I also want to thank the membership of the Trade Union movement, the Business Organisations, the State agencies and the Voluntary and Community sectors for the important work that they do to make our City the wonderful place that it is. When I was elected Mayor I committed to supporting them as much as I could, I hope that during the year I fulfilled that commitment, I tried the best I could.
Before I finish, I would like to sincerely thank and pay tribute to all the members of the out-going Council for their hard work and commitment over the past five years. We may sometimes have been divided politically but we are and have always been united in our desire to achieve the common good and do the “right thing” for our City.
I would like thank each member of the Council personally for the support they gave me over the past 12 months during my term as Mayor and especially to the Deputy Mayor, Cllr. Mary O’Halloran, she was always there to give sound advice and encouragement.
Finally I want to say a special word of thanks to the Lady Mayoress, my wife Vera, who permitted me to give the time to the position of Mayor that I believe it deserved.
To serve as Mayor of this ancient Viking City was a great honour for me and my family, it was a double honour for my family to serve as Mayor the Same year as my brother Tomás Breathnach was Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council and I am grateful to the Council for giving me the opportunity.
Cllr 
