Inland Fisheries Ireland has announced the recipients of its 2017 Sponsorship Scheme which supports angling events and initiatives across the country. In Waterford, three angling initiatives will receive sponsorship. Overall across the country, the scheme will support 79 initiatives to the tune of €30,000 with a focus on those which help grow Ireland’s angling tourism product and support novice anglers.

The initiatives in Waterford receiving funding include:

Carrigavantry Open Day, organised by Waterford City and County Trout Angling Association who will hold an Introduction to Fly Fishing at Carrigavantry Reservoir, Co. Waterford in June 2017. Three qualified fly fishing instructors will be on hand to give practical guidance to novice anglers.

Dungarvan Schools Three Day Fishing Programme, hosted by St Paul’s Fishing Club, will see 12 year old children enjoy an introduction to freshwater biodiversity and angling. The programme will take place at Ballyshunnock Reservoir, Waterford with training coaches on hand to offer support.

Outreach Programme for Anglers with a Disability, organised by Waterford and District Coarse Angling Club, will provide angling experience for clients with disabilities. The three day training course will also be offered to support staff to allow them to equip themselves with angling skills. The programme takes place at Ballyshunnock Reservoir, Waterford in June/July 2017.

New Virgin Media Store in Waterford creates jobs

Virgin Media is expanding its retail presence in Waterford and in store customers will get to see first-hand, the full range of ‘connected entertainment’ products and services through its superfast broadband.

To mark the occasion, WLRFM’s Geoff Harris broadcast his show, The Lunchbox, from the new Virgin Media Store.

Brendan Moran, Head of Sales at Virgin Media, said: “Our continued focus on quality and outstanding service has helped us build a strong customer base. This official opening of our new store in Waterford has created five new jobs in the region.

“The store will be managed by local woman, Nicola Cummins who is passionate about demonstrating the benefits of Virgin Media’s products and services to consumer’s first-hand.

“Our team in Waterford are excited about bringing our content and technology to life and having a strong store network will provide our customers with a truly ‘Virgin’ experience at every touch point.”

The store will be operated by Virgin Media’s new retail partner, TCCL Limited, and will offer a full suite of sales and service across it connectivity, communications and entertainment portfolio.

GROW HQ will be hosting a free food growing workshop thanks to Waterford City Council, Local Agenda 21 and GIY.

The workshop takes place from 6pm to 8pm in GROW HQ on the Dunmore Road, GIY's flagship food education centre, growing and cookery school and café.

The theme of the workshop is Growing Your Community and focuses on growing food for the benefit of society. Open to all, whether you have all the hoe-how, or don't know your hoe from your elbow.

See you there!

For more info email karen@giy.ie or call 051584411

Milo Corcoran, former President of the FAI, was remembered at Friday night’s World Cup qualifying match between Ireland and Wales when a bucket collection took place at the Aviva Stadium to support his son Alan’s fundraising efforts.

Alan has decided to take on the mammoth task of swimming 500 km from the north coast to the south coast of Ireland this May in memory of his father and to raise funds for the Irish Heart Foundation’s Stroke awareness campaign and the Solas Cancer Support Centre, Waterford.

Milo, who suffered a stroke in 2011, sadly passed away last August aged 65 after a short battle with cancer and Alan has set himself a target of raising €50,000 for Irish Heart (75%) and the Solas Cancer Support Centre (25%).

After Milo suffered his stroke Alan raised €15,000 in 2011 when he ran 35 marathons in 35 consecutive days to raise awareness of stroke services.

Keen to assist Irish Heart’s Stroke campaign and support the Solas Cancer Support Centre, which his family used, Alan will begin swimming on the 13th May, swimming up to 12 hours a day in the Irish Sea until he reaches his home town of Waterford.

Statement by simon coveney, minister for housing, planning, community & local government

“The report in relation to the Kilkenny/Waterford boundary is one of four such review processes initiated by former Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly, T.D. The committees were asked to carry out a review of the boundary between the respective local authorities and to make recommendations with respect to those boundaries and any consequential matters that they consider necessary in the interests of effective local government. The reports are advisory - I am not bound by their recommendations.

The recommendation in the Waterford/Kilkenny report to move the existing county boundaries has caused a lot of unease and concern in the area. This has been articulated directly to me by elected representatives and citizens through the consultation process on the National Planning Framework. The issue of identity, linked to county boundaries must be an important consideration.

I want to make clear now that I will not be implementing the recommendation to change the county boundaries. The county boundaries will remain as they are. Kilkenny will continue to be Kilkenny and Waterford will be Waterford.

Having made that decision, there is a responsibility on me now to ensure we have an appropriate statutory management structure to allow Waterford City to grow into the South Kilkenny area. Whereas I don’t intend to implement the recommendation to move the county boundaries, I do intend to ensure that new management solutions are in place to facilitate the cohesive expansion of Waterford City, which will include areas of South Kilkenny. There is an onus on both Waterford and Kilkenny Councils to be open to imaginative and new local government solutions in this regard. I will work with the Chief Executives of both authorities and councillors to that end over the coming months”.

Business in the Community Ireland Reveals Top Companies Contributed €348,340 and 2141 volunteer hours to Charities and Community Groups in Waterford in 2016

The companies who made an impact in Waterford: BAM Contractors Ltd, Bank of Ireland, BT Ireland, Dawn Meats Group, Deloitte, eir, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, ESB, Gas Networks Ireland, Heineken Ireland, Janssen Sciences Ireland UC, KBC Bank Ireland, Marks & Spencer Ireland Ltd, Musgrave, RTÉ, SSE Ireland, State Street, Tesco Ireland, Ulster Bank Ireland, Veolia and Vodafone Ireland Foundation.

The Business Impact Map which can be viewed online at http://www.bitc.ie captures statistics from 56 of Ireland’s largest companies that are members of Business in the Community Ireland, Ireland’s leading organisation on corporate responsibility and sustainability. Statistics for Waterford show that over €215,937 was given in cash donations; €95,068 was contributed through in-kind donations and €37,335 was raised through employee fundraising. Employees also volunteered over 2141 hours to local groups and projects during the year.

Nationally, the figures for 2016 represent an increase on 2015 with employee volunteering rising 5 per cent and a 15 per cent increase in combined cash donations, in-kind and employee fundraising provided by companies to local groups.

Increasingly, employees want to work with companies who have values that align with their own and they also expect companies to engage with community groups as standard.

Business in the Community Ireland Chief Executive, Tina Roche, commented on the key trends in company engagement with their local communities, “The biggest trend we are seeing is the rise of employees using their skills to help communities. For example construction companies are helping local community groups with refurbishment projects or IT companies are offering coding workshops and mentoring. The huge gain for the community groups is that they are getting access to knowledge and technical skills that otherwise might not be available or affordable to them”.

Gardai at Waterford wish to speak with the driver of a van who stopped and offered assistance to a female at the Old Kilmeaden Road Roundabout on the Outer Ring Road, Waterford on the 24/3/2017, between 6pm and 7pm following an incident involving a blue BMW. Contact Garda Station on 051 305300.

Pictured are parents of disabled children who mounted a protest in Waterford and nationwide over the lack of proper facilities and treatment for disabled children. They are pictured with the Metropolitan Mayor John Hearne.

HSE response

The HSE acknowledges the frustrations of those parents involved in today's demonstrations in Clonmel, Kilkenny and Waterford.

The HSE's Community Healthcare Organisation Area 5 (the South East) are committed to having the best possible services in place from within available resources. We want to assure the public that continued attempts are being made to provide a better and more timely service to those we serve in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford.

The HSE is rolling out the "Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People Programme (PDS)" programme. This involves a reconfiguration of all HSE and HSE funded children’s disability services into geographically-based Children’s Disability Network Teams (Early-Intervention and School-aged or 0-18 Teams). This Programme aims to achieve a national, equitable approach in service provision for all children based on their individual need and regardless of their disability, where they live or where they go to school.

Based on the recommendations of the Report of the National Reference Group on Multidisciplinary Services for Children aged 5-18 Years (2009), the intention is to roll out an integrated care model that will allow children, whatever the nature of their disability, to be seen as locally to their home and school as possible; at primary care level when their needs can be met there and by a network specialist interdisciplinary team if their needs are more complex.

The primary and network teams will be supported as appropriate by specialist support services with a high level of expertise in particular fields.

Since 2014, the roll out of the "Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (0-18s)" Programme has entailed targeted investment of €14 million nationwide and the provision of 275 additional therapy staff, to increase services for children with disabilities.

These measures will have a positive impact on the provision of clinical services for all children, including those with Autism, requiring access to health related supports.

There has never been a better time to visit the stunning Annestown Beach on the Copper Coast. The local Scout group have worked hard to renovate a small kiosk which was last open over 20 years ago. With the help of the local community, many individuals and companies including McCarthys, McCormacks, The Art Hand and Woodies, to name but a few, the kiosk has been transformed into a well-stocked shop selling Ponticelli coffees, ice cream, snacks and drinks. It is manned by the local Copper Coast scouts and will act as a fundraising venture for the Scout group.

As you're passing along the coast road past the beach at Annestown, if you spot our colourful flag flying above the kiosk, it means the shop is open. It will be open weekends and holidays from 11am, starting on Saturday 8th April.

Check our facebook page “The Beach Hut @ Annestown” for more details.

Looking forward to welcoming you to The Beach Hut.

Help float our boats on this rising tide!

Believe it or not, it has been over one year since we last went to the ballot box to vote in the 2016 general

election. 403 days have passed, when we all trouped in damp wet conditions, into our local polling station. We were filled with the promise of new politics and a new dawn for Waterford City and County.

There was much trumpeting across the local airwaves and all forms of social media. Alight with candidates promising to fix our woes. The theme running throughout most of the campaigning, was that “I” can get Waterford back into the premier league of Irish cities.

It was with excited hearts that we placed our mark onto the ballot papers. I know that many a first time youthful voter, countless having registered to vote in the same sex marriage referendum, were looking for a “New Politics”. Our elected representatives would hopefully deliver exactly what they said on the tin – just like that decking varnish we annually spread on the wood in the corner of our gardens.

When all the dust had settled, we had two new and two returning politicians, making their way to the Dáil. To a man and a dog, we had entrusted our votes to our elected representatives to deliver for Waterford. The Proportional Representation system we use, pretty much ensures that people can, in reality, vote for every elected TD. I am sure that people who gave John Halligan a first preference, would have voted for David Cullinane and a vote for Mary Butler, may also have sneaked a second preference for, dare I say another closely related political party? But of course nobody will openly admit to this close “Vote sharing”, or “Strategic voting”, which does happen. Consequently, we are all in part responsible, for what we the circa 52,000 voters, elected to the Dáil on 26th February 2016.

So, one year on from the last GE and we are still waiting for that hot political potato, which is the second Catheterisation Laboratory to come to University Hospital Waterford. The promised report was delivered and the findings were the polar opposite, of what we were lead to believe was merely a formality, a done deal! Back to square one. But there was light at the end of the tunnel. We would get an interim mobile Cath Lab delivered to Waterford City, to service our unacceptable waiting list numbers. Even this mobile unit has failed to materialise and appears to be wandering aimlessly around Ireland looking for Waterford City, its new temporary home.

Our regional airport, which has not seen any commercial flights since last summer, was also apparently, promised revenue for the much needed and long awaited runway extension. This would ensure its future viability and a capability to fly small jet engine passenger planes to the UK and further afield to European destinations. This too seems to have been put on the very back burner and with Minister Ross currently up to his elbows in ever escalating industrial discontent. We may never see in the near future a positive resolution to our airport’s woes.

What of our Technological University status for WIT? The insistence of a merger with Carlow, is simply allowing other regions to get ahead of us and possibly scupper our plans to develop our third level offering. Drive passed Carlow IT and you will see that they are expanding and expanding. With lots of new buildings and hoardings, stating regional “University” status will be with them soon.

These three; UHW, our Airport and Technological University status, are still game changers for Waterford and the greater South East region. Without these, are we really going to get our fair share of future development? I read a recent report, which stated there is a very real possibility that 60%-70% of jobs, and therefore the population, could migrate to the Greater D-region in the next number of years.

Our recent good news story, of the €300,000,000 investment, will help our profile and create more interest in Waterford. But to raise all our boats, on this rising tide we need our elected to remove some more ballast.

Waterford Fianna Fáil TD, Mary Butler has said that Minister Varadkar must halt the restructuring process currently underway in the Money Advice and Budgeting Service and the Citizens Information Service and ensure that staff and volunteers have their voices heard properly.

Deputy Butler was commenting as her party’s private members motion was debated in the Dáil on Tuesday, 28th March.

“Both MABS offices in Co. Waterford, in West Waterford and in the City, provide significant and essential services by providing information, advice and advocacy and helping people to manage and overcome debt.

“The three Citizens Information Centres in the county play a major role in supporting people with advice on their statutory entitlements. At present there are 48 volunteers in the city, and a further 15 in the Dungarvan.

“There is of course scope to deliver greater efficiencies and effectiveness in both organisations. Fianna Fáil is not opposed to change and reform where necessary.

“However, we are nevertheless troubled by the very real concerns that that have been voiced by staff and volunteers regarding the potential implications of the restructuring of MABS and CIS from local companies into a regional model.

“Volunteerism is at the core of the services that MABS and CIS provide. They are embedded at a grassroots level within communities.

“Many volunteers have been in touch with me in the past number of weeks worried about how the restructuring will affect their involvement.

“There is significant concern that the restructuring model will disenfranchise volunteers. This would have become apparent to those driving the restructuring if they had engaged meaningfully with staff and volunteers before they began the process.

“Fianna Fáil is calling on the Minister for Social Protection to immediately utilise the power he has under the Citizens Information Act of 2007 to issue a directive to halt this proposed regionalisation.

“We must listen to, and heed, the concerns of those who have voiced their strong reservations to the restructuring process, and who have real experience of the services.

“It is imperative that all stakeholders involved are consulted and allowed to engage in meaningful, constructive dialogue to secure an outcome that is agreeable to all. I hope the Minister listens and does the right thing on this matter,” concluded Butler.

In 2016, Waterford CICs provided Information, Advice and Advocacy to 13,699 people in Waterford City and County in 2016 and dealt with some 21,038 queries from them.

Minister of State for Training, Skills and Innovation John Halligan T.D. has confirmed capital funding totalling over half a million euro for harbour projects in Waterford.

The €258,750 allocation will assist Waterford Council in development and repair projects at Tramore, Ardmore, Passage East and Boatstrand, Minister Halligan said.

Funding of €75,000 has been allocated for repairs to and widening of the slipway to improve access at Tramore Pier; €112,500 for repair works to the pier wall and provision of coastal defence at Ardmore Pier; €56,250 for the provision of railings and ladders to the pier at Passage East; and €15,000 for the provision of handrails and a concrete plinth at Boatstrand Pier.

“This much-needed funding is a great boost to our local fishery and aquaculture linked infrastructure in Waterford’s small harbours”, Minister Halligan added. “Aside from creating local employment over the time span of the projects, these works will also further enhance the amenities provided to the wider marine community in our coastal areas.”

By Kieran Hartley, Fianna Fail candidate in the European Elections

There have been many calls for Northern Ireland to be assigned EU special status in order to avoid economic turmoil in Northern Ireland. MEP’s, including Ireland’s, have endorsed a resolution which states that Brexit negotiations must recognise the "unique and special circumstances confronting the island of Ireland".

Our geographic Island position off the North West of the EU mainland and westward of the UK has resulted in the UK being one of Ireland’s primary trading partners. We cannot alter our geography, historically our Agri and SME sectors have significant trade with the UK, relatively recently our FDI’s, Tech and Pharmaceutical industries are located within the EU primarily to take advantage of the EU trading block. Ireland, North or South, East or West, cannot afford to sacrifice either side of our vital economic activity; we must avoid economic turmoil on the entire Island or Ireland as best we can.

The entire Island of Ireland requires EU special status.

Manfred Weber MEP, and chair of the EPP group said during the EU parliament debate that we should “avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland”. He warned Britain could not cherry-pick once it leaves the EU and that "A state outside of the European cannot have the same or better conditions than a state inside the European Union" The EU28 need to be aware of the consequence facing all of the members of the remaining EU27, Ireland’s geography dictates special status. Irelands Four Fine Gael MEP’s are part of this EPP political grouping and should be mindful of fellow EU MEP’s navel gazing from the EU mainland to the detriment of Ireland, North & South.

The Good Friday agreement guarantees all Citizens of NI access to an Irish passport and unhindered travel access to the EU, an all Island EU special status will protect the right of NI citizens as EU citizens and all associated rights should they wish to avail of them. This will strengthen the Good Friday agreement, an agreement that cannot be reneged on. A unseen consequence of the Good Friday agreement is that it automatically infers different EU status to all Irish passport holders, North or South, in comparison the Dutch, German, French EU passport holders. The entire Island is already special status and needs to be formally recognised as such by the EU & UK

The notion of a hard border dissipates if there is all Island EU special status. The notion of a border poll dissipates if there is all Island special status, from a UK perspective dissipating border polls and special status may have a positive effect with regard to Scotland.

We need to maintain the common travel area; limiting EU special status to NI will not help achieve this. We need to preserve access to the single market and all Island EU special status guaranteed this for NI. This will enable access to EU funding streams for the entire Island of Ireland and establish a quid-pro-quo between the EU and UK with regard to the Brexit bill.

There will be a border, geography creates history and the reality of our Island geography should be recognised. We did not ask for Brexit, but we have to deal with the consequences of it as best we can. We can be Irish, Europeans and trade with our nearest neighbour as we currently do after Brexit. Spain’s veto over Gibraltar in the EU negotiations heralds Irelands veto over itself with regard to EU membership – we cannot get our Brexit negotiations wrong. The Unions of both the UK & EU are at risk if they get Brexit wrong. Irexit is an entirely avoidable path if the entire Island of Ireland has EU special status with the Brexit negotiations between the EU & UK.

Amber Young was recently appointed KBC Waterford Hub Manager.

Amber is one of a number of recent appointments at KBC, which has committed its long term future to Ireland. It is growing its retail business in Ireland with market leading mortgage, personal loan and credit card rates. KBC’s mortgage offering includes rates as low as 2.9%. As well as being able to meet customers’ needs at its hub in Waterford city, KBC has also made a €100m investment to become a digital-first customer centric bank.

Prior to her appointment, Amber was Business Development Associate in KBC Waterford where she was responsible for managing the development of the KBC business for the greater Waterford area. Amber has almost ten years banking experience prior to KBC as a Mortgage Advisor, Sales Manager, and Business Advisor. A qualified financial advisor, Amber also holds a degree in chemical engineering from UCD.

Amber and her team can be contacted at amber.young@kbc.ie or on 051-515980 or in person at KBC’s hub at 55 High Street with any banking queries.