‘Covid-19 has changed our focus, we are working in a different way now’
some exercise; get some fresh air and be able to do so in a safe environment and to be able to use greenways to do that and the mountain trails in Forth Mountain and the Min Ryan Park, which has had huge use since it opened a couple of months back. These are the type of facilities we need to be providing so people do have that space to be able to go out and exercise, but they are also important as tourist attractions as well because people like activity tourism. People want to be out enjoying the great weather and outdoors we have in Wexford. So as the tourism market picks up again we have not stopped our programme of development but that we have advanced that and we have facilities for people to come and enjoy and use.’
Mr Enright said Covid has caused huge disruption and has led to major change within the local authority.
‘It has changed our focus. We are working in a different way now than what we expected to be doing. We’re working in a different way that we never expected to be working. We’re trying to work as effectively as we can and continue to provide the essential services people need: having roads maintained properly, having water and sewage, being able to provide housing for people which is needed now more than ever as we see a lot of people become unemployed.
‘It’s important that we maintain these essential public services. We provide around 200 public services to the people here in Wexford.’
Mr Enright said some of the services have moved online.
‘Even during the lockdown the library staff delivered books to people who couldn’t get out and that was very welcomed by people who were able to get books from the library. We’ve had to change the way we do things. We will shortly have a fully online planning service so people can make their application online. These are the type of systems we’re working on to be able to operate in a new environment.
‘We have grown and refocussed our IT department and they have done fantastic work during the pandemic. Particularly how they produced a system that logged and tracked the calls we got in from people who needed to avail of food and medication. We developed a system where that was done on a map base so when someone rang in and needed food delivered or medication that appeared up on the map as a red dot. We got their Eircode from them so we knew exactly where they were. Once that service that been delivered to them that colour changed to green so we were able to map and see that nobody was left behind.’
He said that system was of huge benefit to people and will be there for people in the event of another lockdown.
‘Everyone who needed that service got that service effec
tively. This system is in place in the event of another lockdown. The call centre is in place, as is the system. It can be scaled up if needed. There is a huge volunteer network who are willing to step up as they did in the past. We are ready for another lockdown we hope we don’t see one and that the numbers drop down, but if the decision is made to go to four or five, we are ready for that.’
The surge earlier this month came as a shock to Mr Enright, he said. ‘I was very surprised when I got the call from the HSE on Sunday that we had experienced a significant spike in numbers here. There is a lot of anecdotal information that there were quite a few celebrations or commiserations after county finals the week before last which has led to a surge, but that seemed to be happening across the country in other locations as well.’
When asked if there is an argument that GAA should have been written off for the year, he said: ‘It’s trying to get that balance the whole time and it’s a very difficult balance to get between taking all of the precautions that are needed and allowing people to live their lives. There are always times when that balance will swing one way or the other in the wrong direction and we will get spikes; what’s important is that the spikes are dealt with quickly and efficiently. That they are not allowed to escalate and grow exponentially. The HSE acted very quickly by getting a test centre set up in Ferns by Monday afternoon on a temporary basis. Hopefully that will identify the Covid cases and get those people to isolate and hopefully that will bring things back under control again. That balance between getting letting people live their lives, letting businesses operate and working with restrictions is a difficult one so we are going to get these spikes. We can’t shut down everything indefinitely.’
He said any further lockdown could cause a lot more unemployment. ‘It also might push some businesses who are struggling over the edge who may not open again. I think a lockdown is a last resort and should only be used where it is necessary in the interest of public health.’
He praised the government’s
handling of the crisis and the role of the county’s political leaders.
‘It’s impossible to have a perfect response to what we have experienced. We didn’t have enough knowledge about the virus. How quickly and rapidly it can spread; how it affected people of different age groups; we have earned a lot about that since. I think if there was a diktat brought out at the start that everybody should wear masks indoors and in public places that there would have been relatively low compliance rates. I think as we learn more about how to protect ourselves that further restrictions and advice will come in.
‘I think that has brought us to where we are today. I think there has been a very good national response to the crisis and I think we’ve seen a very good local response here in Wexford from the HSE, the gardaí and the Civil Defence, Meals on Wheels, there has just been a huge response there and people have done their best. I’m loathe to criticise anybody as people have worked very hard to bring this under control but we are dealing with something you can’t see, you can’t feel it; it spreads very rapidly and easily. I think people are doing their best. It really is up to us to double down now with our own personal behaviours to ensure we bring the latest outbreak under control.’
He said people will be living with Covid restrictions for the coming months.
‘I think we’re going to have a challenging winter ahead of us and once we start emerging into the sporting we will start emerging out of this crisis. At that stage given the medical advice we have at the moment, we expect a vaccine to be deployed. And a vaccine on its own won’t stop this, it will also need effective treatments because even with the vaccine in place not everybody will not take a vaccine so it is still going to be there in the community so we need effective treatments as well, so as we come out of the spring we will see one or more vaccines and better treatments and a better understanding of what we’re dealing with with this virus and this will see the opening up of society and the economy even more.’
He foresees international travel into Ireland next summer. ‘I think there is a pent up demand for people to take holidays. We see it already with the Georgia Southern University campus that we have set up in Wexford town that was fully booked for last summer but obviously had to be cancelled but Georgia Southern are advertising that programme again for next summer and they see students travelling from America to Wexford to avail of that. I think tourism will take a few years to recover. I don’t think it will recover immediately. I think people will want that outdoor activity tourism experience which they will feel as safer rather than going to an urban area; going to visit cities. I think people might enjoy coming to places like Wexford.’
Projects including the Hook Lighthouse (€6m), the New Ross Norman visitor centre (€5.5m), the Irish National Heritage Park (€5m), the tourism town centre project for Enniscorthy, are all being advanced.
‘We are developing our tourism destination product here over the next few years so as tourism recovers and people return we will have a much better offering for them in terms of our tourist attractions, many of which have not been invested in in decades. We now have much better infrastructure to attract tourists. More hotels are also needed in the county. We see interest in hotels starting to spark up again which is great to see. As tourism recovers we may see another four hotels being developed in the county which will give us more people coming and staying here.’
He said there is a clear need to continue investing in the county if it is to weather the current crisis.
‘I can’t overemphasise the need to invest now in all of these things so as we emerge from this crisis we have better infrastructure and facilities in place for recreation, tourism and the hospitality sector. We have those now coming on stream so we have more to offer. The tourism sector in Ireland employs about 260,000 people nationally. We have about 10,000 people employed so it’s an important part of our economy. It’s one we have great potential to grow because traditionally Wexford has had very low international numbers so as we develop a better international destination product there will be an opportunity to grow that international sector here in the county and that will mean more beds, more hotels and bringing more tourists here to enjoy everything that the county has to offer and I think there is great potential here to grow that.’
A temporary park and ride and bus service could be offered on a seasonal basis to our beaches.
‘I think the greenways network will have great benefit because we are going to have in the not too distant future a greenway from New Ross to Waterford, a greenway from Rosslare Strand through Rosslare Harbour on to Waterford going through villages. We will have a greenway from Wexford to Rosslare and a greenway from Wexford to Curracloe. We see that people who want to see these attractions will go on the greenways which will have spurs off them going to our beaches and heritage sites so people can park at the trail-heads, take their bikes off the back of their car, hop on those and cycle to these facilities.
‘We do have to change the mindset of Irish people whereby they want to park right on top of where they are going. They don’t want to walk 200 yards to where they want to get to. You see that in the summertime. It’s really to make things easier for them.’
On the economic front, Mr Enright said the council has sought government support to offset the the reduction in income.
‘For the last few years we have had a small surplus on our annual budget. That has helped us to be able to invest in capital projects. We are moving from a situation where we were in a good financial position with a surplus to this year recording a deficit. We have seen our income drop for our services, from planning applications etc. We have people who have mortgages with us which we allowed them to defer because of their employment circumstances. We have seen where certain sectors have a rates waiver and we are getting some compensation for that from the government. We have seen our car parking income drop dramatically so we have seen a drop in income across a whole range of services we provide.’
He was loathe to put a figure on the total sum saying the council has sought recovery of some of this money from the government.
‘If we don’t have the income that we need we won’t be able to provide the services that people avail of from us every day. This includes litter collecting, library services and supports to the county’s tourist attractions.’
Additional costs running into the hundreds of thousands also had to be met, including for PPE and an upgrade of the council’s IT systems.
‘It’s more costly to pay for construction contracts due to the difficulties of operating in a Covid environment. We have almost 1,000 staff so we have to ensure they are operating in a safe environment, the same as every business.’
There have been some positive cases among staff, he said. ‘Fortunately they have been contained and haven’t spread.’
Mr Enright said he was encouraged by the Budget, particularly the money being allocated towards social housing. ‘I think the provision will be the same or even increased. There is also a special provision in the budget for affordable housing, which is good to see.’
He welcomed the reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector.
‘I have been hugely impressed with the volunteer commitment throughout the county; that was overwhelming. Community spirit is alive and well in Wexford and it’s great to see that. It’s been hugely humbling to see the response of staff here. To volunteer to go working in key positions to help with this pandemic that would possibly put them in contact with Covid positive people and when staff were asked to work longer hours and weekends everyone played their part and there wasn’t a grumble out of anyone.’
He recalled Easter eggs being delivered from a grandparent’s home to their grandchildren.
He said among the positives from Covid are more people cycling, walking, enjoying the outdoors and the county’s beaches and also the way business owners have adapted. ‘It’s great to see outdoor dining. We waived all of our charges this year (for outdoor dining). It’s great to see James and Paula O’Connor opening up Frank’s Place in the middle of Wexford. It’s great to see cafes and restaurants doing take-aways and deliveries. It shows the business acumen of people in how they have changed how they operate and work for the new environment. There is no doubt cafes, restaurants and bars are facing into a difficult few months.’
He urged people to shop local and to shop online local. ‘Sometimes it costs a little bit more to buy online locally than from the UK or somewhere else but sending your money out of the country is doing nothing for the local economy an if we are to get through this it’s by supporting local jobs and local employment.’
Between the Restart and Restart Plus grant around €14m has been paid out to business owners to help them adapt to the new reality of being in business in 2020.