'True Blue' Ned identifies teamwork as the way forward for his beloved South Tipperary
County Manager Ned O'Connor is the senior local authority administrator in South Tipperary. In the latest in our series on Tipperary Newsmakers, he spoke to EAMONN LACEY on his hopes and visions for his native county, the premier part of the Premier County.
The team ethic concept has always been an important feature in the life of South Tipperary County Manager Ned O'Connor.
An avid sports fan when it comes to supporting the county hurlers or his favourite football club, Everton, Ned O'Connor puts teamwork on the top of the agenda in his role as the leading administrator in South Tipperary.
He is a firm believer that teamwork and togetherness is crucial for South Tipperary to succeed in this economic climate and once that foundation is well secured, the area will be poised to avail of the upturn in the economy when it happens.
Throughout his distinguished career as a public servant - he started working with the authority in 1964 - Ned has instilled the ethic of team work into whatever responsibilities he has taken up.
Wherever he has served in the urban areas of South Tipperary or at the helm of the County Council as county manager, he has surrounded himself with a cohesive and comitted team working with a common purpose..
It starts with the 800 plus staff, indoor and outdoor, located all over South Tipperary and that teamwork in place in those offices also applied to the towns, villages and communities that make up South Tipperary.
County Manager for the last eight years, he believes a sea change took place in South Tipperary some years ago that enables everybody interested in working together to develop and promote the county to achieve better results.
IT is a source of relief and pride to him that gone from the South Tipperary psyche is the damaging competitiveness that towns engaged in for a long number of years that in his view held back the county from fulfilling its potential.
He cites the example of the protracted, acrimonious and bitter dispute between Cashel and Clonmel over the most suitable location for a single site for the development of the acute hospital services in the region.
That row lasted for over thirty years while the health services in the area stagnated and that sad chapter stands as the primary example of what an unhealthy rivalry can lead to.
That game changing moment, which saw all elected members throughout South Tipperary buying into the strategy that had to be adopted, came when South Tipperary was omitted from the National Spatial Strategy.
"We had to develop our own strategy in response to that setback. We had a very good urban infrastructure in place, between Tipperary town, Carrick, Clonmel, Cahir and Cashel, all nicely located. For years rather than use this as a positive, by and large the towns were competing with each other. That had to change," said the manager.
He said at the very core of that strategy was the need to have one growth centre, that South Tipperary needed a town comparable with Ennis, Tralee or Dundalk. Clonmel was the only area big enough and was the obvious choice.
“All the elected representatives in the other urban areas bought into that and they deserve great credit for taking that important step,” insisted the manager.
At the heart of the strategy for the growth centre and the development of South Tipperary were two crucial projects – the purchase of the Ballingarrane Estate outside Clonmel and the development of Tipperary Institute.
The decision to purchase Ballingarrane in 2002 was described as visionary by Ned O’Connor and he believes that the project is crucial to the development of South Tipperary for generations to come.
The IDA came on board and purchased fifty acres for a research and Technology Park and Tipperary Institute were earmarked as important tenants.
The Council also made available fifty acres for the development of indigineous industries and he is pleased that despite the recession there has been a number of positive inquiries.
While progress has been affected by the downturn, the manager believes the 280 acre Ballingarrane site purchased for over j4million, with the IDA and the TI having a t least a presence on site, that development will take place but at a slower pace than was first envisaged.
Ned O’Connor is an advocate of what he described as the ‘lifeline link’ being formed between Limerick Institute of Technology and Tipperary Institute and is hopeful that the forthcoming Hunt report on the third level system in Ireland will give its seal of approval to the new relationship.
TI bought into the site from 2005, committing to a re-location on a cost neutral basis. At the moment TI have a small presence in Ballingarrane but the overall transfer was hit by the downturn but is still very much alive and pressure is being maintained to see that the transfer re-location still goes ahead.
“What is important is that we develop Ballingarrane correctly, we have the IDA on site and hopefully the TI will progress this year and a site is still earmarked for a hotel,” he said.
The manager said South Tipperary had a powerful dynamism and was a location that was greatly enhanced by proximity to the new M8 infrastructure.
“This crucial infrastructure puts South Tipperary and the designated growth centre of Clonmel in a very strong position. It means vital industries for the area such as Guidant and Abbott in Clonmel and Johnson Johnson in Cashel have a catchment area of half a million people within one hour - that is what those crucial industries and the Ballingarrane project have to offer in the future,” he said.
The manager said it was ironic now that sixteen years after the settlement of the divisive hospital issue that the hospital services was a crucial issue again.
HE was satisfied now that South Tipperary was prepared to take on the task of protecting the acute hospital services as a united entity and that there was widespread support from every urban and rural area in the county and beyond for the retention of vital services at the Clonmel based hospital.
He said that any decision to downgrade the hospital would seriously undermine not only the county spatial strategy but also the considerable public/private investment that has been generated as a result of that strategy. It was always the view , he said, of industrialists that the presence of acute hospital services in South Tipperary was an important deciding factor in locating in the area.
He said that South Tipperary was unique and he took great personal and professional satisfaction in seeing the area develop.
“South Tipperary is the premier half of the premier county and it is my objective and everybody working with the authority to see that South Tipperary is an attractive place to live, work and do business in,” said the manager.
He is confident that can be achieved with elected representatives, officials and the major towns in the area working as a united entity.
It was the desire of the manager, management team and elected members to see that each town and the rural areas made progress every year and to do that worthwhile, viable and cost effective proposals had to be made to Government Departments on a constant basis.
This year there will be in excess of a €50m capital spend on investment in the four urban towns that make up South Tipperary – Clonmel, Carrick,Cashel and Tipperary with Cahir being in the county council area.
Ned said that the strong urban network would be used to huge advantage for South Tipperary and would deliver for all of South Tipperary including the rural areas
He praised the Trojan work being done in rural communities throughout South Tipperary and pointed in particular to the progress made by Emly and Clerihan.
The manager said the two communities had shown tremendous vision combined with a massive community spirit which yielded positive results. Huge strides were made with Emly winning the national award in the tidy towns competition and Clerihan had developed so much in recent years driven by very strong sense of community.
“The communities in these two areas and others have shown what can be attained by communities helping themselves. They are wonderful examples of communities working together for their own areas and taking great pride in doing so,” he said.
The advances made in those two communities proved that rural villages near major towns can develop and still retain their character and rural appeal.
He was pleased that such an investment would be taking place this year throughout South Tipperary at a time when everybody was aware of the difficult economic climate which was exacerbated by demands on funds to deal with flooding problems and repair of the roads after the harsh weather at the start of the year..
Nevertheless, he believes that despite all of that South Tipperary is capable of making steady progress this year and that a strong investment programme was in place.
Such a programme was designed with a view to attracting enterprise and investment to develop the physical and social infrastructure that would position Tipperary to thrive in a more positive financial climate.
A new civic amenity site will be provided in Clonmel this year and the combined phase two and phase three which will involve a further €25m spend in Clonmel on the flood alleviation scheme will commence.
Also in Clonmel there were plans to work on the connectivity between the Showgrounds centre and the town centre.
THE manager believes that progress should be made concentrating on the strengths and the opportunities that the Showgrounds brings to Clonmel and the large number of people it attracts that would not otherwise come to the town.
He believes Clonmel needs an arts centre /theatre and a feasibility study on the project will go out for public consultation very shortly and he hoped the amenity would be on the same scale as the Excel in Tipp town.
In Carrick on Suir €2.5m will be spent on a re-generation programme in Ballylynch while in Tipperary town work would begin in the autumn on the new civic offices and the new government offices.
The manager said that Cashel’s profile had been further enhanced by the securing of a gold status award for the success of a pilot accessibility scheme for the disabled. The government is now considering rolling out that scheme around the country on a phased basis and the next South Tipperary area to benefit will be Tipperary town.
A master plan would be prepared setting out how to capitalise on Cashel’s status as a tourism centre and how the town centre can be linked to the Rock.
He also pointed to major expenditure outisde of the four towns and he is particularly pleased that this year will see progress on the provision of the Fethard and Burncourt water schemes which were long awaited and urgently needed.
He wanted to see progress being made on the most important outstanding infrastructural work required in South Tipperary, the development of the N24 and in particular the Cahir to Pallasgreen section.
There were some initiatives he was pleased to see getting off the ground this year and one of them was the appointment of a Business Development Officer, Anthony Fitzgerald .The new appointment would be looking at a number of job and enterprise creation ideas, including exploring opportunities with the major multi nationals located in Clonmel regarding advertising for sub contract work on a local rather than a national basis which could generate more jobs in South Tipperary.
A new website raising the profile of industry in Clonmel and South Tipperary would be launched and Ned O’Connor has welcomed the setting up of an agency, First Step, which provides loans to help new business ideas get off the ground and he expected that to benefit South Tipperary.
He was looking forward to working with Iarnrod Eireann to develop a rail marketing strategy this year and was also anxious to see progress was made on developing tourism strategies such as the promotion of a Butler Trail and a Glen of Aherlow cycling route developments.
Another area where the manager was expecting to concentrate on was the strengthening of links between the Council and the various voluntary and community organisations.
“These organisations do so much valuable work and have contributed so much to South Tipperary over the years, that is an important resource that we want to capitalise on,” he said.
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Weather for Clonmel
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy rain
Temperature: 2 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
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