Wexford Library project stalls

For the last decade Wexford town Library has been housed in a converted children’s playhouse in a car park to the rear of a shops. Not quite the landmark building that most people would expect to house a library in. The previous library was sold by the council about 10 years ago to facilitate the expansion of a hotel. While the staff have done their best to improve the service by opening longer and using the facility to educate and entertain all ages the reality is that Wexford needs a new library.
A site was identified by Wexford Borough Council and in partnership with the county council, our side of the deal was put in place. The new library was to be sited on the present Mallon St car park, as part of a cultural spine linking the new opera house, the arts centre and the historic Selskar Abbey. A competitive tendering process resulted in a successful bidder and contracts were about to be signed. We thought we were there despite the present economic realities until last night.
At the end of our meeting an official told us the Department of Environment had advised that a new tendering process had been put in place and that the previous competition which had produced a contractor was to be superceded by a new tendering process. I believe that the new process will fix costs for which the state is liable. Fair enough , who will argue with getting more bang for your buck? However one wonders what was going on before? We now know that contractors bidding for state contracts are tendering significantly below what the tender documents proposed just 1 year ago. Where was value for money when it came to handing out PPP contracts in the last 10 years? Presumably the new contractors are still making a profit of some description so how much was creamed off the state in past I wonder?

The down side for Wexford is that according to the department it will be another year before the new tendering process will see a contract in place for Wexford library. In the meantime users in Wexford will have to tolerate substandard conditions as indeed will staff. What concerns me however is that given the reality in the economy at the moment that it may be quite some time before the library in Wexford is built. The council has decided to spend €30,000 re-surfacing the site so that it can re-open temporarily as a car park. I don’t share the enthusiasm of the Fianna Fail councillors who immediately welcomed the re-opening of the car park. I accept that the officials need every last bob they can get but what becomes temporary has a habit of becoming permanent, as the library staff will tell you themselves. They after all are temporarily housed for over 10 years now!
And what about the man in the middle of all this the minister? During the last General Election the Green candidate made his feelings known about the library in no uncertain terms. The greens dismiss the need for a new library. Read the 2007 Green agenda for Wexford at http://wexwicca.blogspot.com. Mind you he didn’t get much support for it but if this is also the view of the Minister then it’ll be a long time before so much as a block is laid in the site let alone a book opened.

Lenihan’s retro analysis means its back to the future!

2FM’s Colm and Jim Jim have a quiz where the catch phrase regarding a competition where the prize goes up by €50 each day “Its going higher and higher”. Shortly after their morning slot Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was confirming what we all thought about government debt. It’s going higher and higher too as the tax base collapses. Every day it seems the Fianna Fail analysis of the economy is coming apart at the seams. The right wing neo liberal analysis, so beloved of the building mob, is shown for what it is, voodoo economics. Poor Brian has the appearance of an undertaker on his way to a morgue these days!! No wonder, Fianna Fail and the Greens are going lower and lower!

The reality is that we can’t keep on building houses or shopping centres that nobody wants, nor apartments for that matter. Stamp duty, VAT and corporate taxes slide. The FF view that this is the international credit crunch doesn’t explain away the fallacy of their neglect of investment in communities. Unlike the US or UK where their government tries to restimulate their economies by letting out some cash, all of ours was blown in the boom. There’s nothing left in the locker, so vulture capitalists will be encouraged on the boards of the banks, the national pension reserve fund the value of which must be in doubt since it was invested in infrastructure which is itself declining will be looted and borrowing will be maxed out as far as the ECB will let us go.

It seems to me that their initial response will be to attack the public servants but watch what will also be done; expect school building projects to grind to a halt, any project for which there has been no contract signed and thankfully we got our swimming pool through here last week will be long fingered and road projects such as the New Ross bypass will be frozen.

The government however by focusing on the short term are missing out on the wider issue and its this; is there any strategy to put in place an alternative road back to prosperity? The reality is that demand for housing and retail is satisfied for some time to come. Looking for growth into the future means finding something sustainable, going back is not an option. We’ve seen it can only go so far, to sustain it you must re-invent your economy. The government is sleep walking and the economy going down the tubes!

My view is that we should go down the road of developing R&D alongside the 3^rd level sector. Investing in education is something that the present Minister for Finance’s father understood when he was in cabinet. Indeed Brian Senior served as Minister for Education. A strategy is needed to be put in place where the key skill sets needed to drive imaginative ideas and innovation are focussed on our third level sector. Batt O’Keeffe should wake up to the other half of his portfolio which is science. I spoke with a third level science administrator in a college this week and her view of this minister was get out and march next Saturday!

So there you have it, a government as keen to participate as that woman who refused tickets to the RTE late late toy show! Being close to this government is now job for a mortician not a hairdresser or pianist!