Downgrading plans for GMIT Castlebar revealed

Call on Taoiseach to intervene while still in office

Edwin McGreal

Plans to scrap four courses currently on offer at GMIT Castlebar were announced yesterday (Monday).
Staff at the campus were informed yesterday afternoon while local councillors and Oireachtas members met with GMIT management at Breaffy House Hotel yesterday evening.
At Breaffy House, politicians were told of the recommendation to discontinue four courses, namely Heritage Studies, Sustainable Building Technology, Digital Media and a Business course.
Addressing the councillors were Dr Fergal Barry, President of GMIT and Michael Gill, Acting Head of GMIT Castlebar.
Sinn Féin’s Senator Rose Conway-Walsh slammed the plans.
“It’s not just a downgrading but a strategic downgrading,” Senator Conway-Walsh told The Mayo News last night. “A letter in August about the closure of the campus served to undermine the confidence of students in applying for courses in GMIT Castlebar and I would say to students seeking to go here not to be fearful for the future. GMIT Castlebar remains a campus with exceptional courses, staff and facilities.
“It is my firm belief that there has been a sustained and targeted agenda to dilute and diminish programmes available through the Mayo campus. The strategic neglect of the Mayo Campus including delays in decision making around long term management and programme development has angered many people in Mayo,” she added.
Cllr Michael Kilcoyne (Independent) said Castlebar had always suffered in the shadow of GMIT’s main campus in Galway City.
“My own view is that unless Castlebar is an independent college, it will always struggle as GMIT funding is routed through Galway first and Castlebar is not a priority to them,” he told The Mayo News.
Cllr Kilcoyne said Dr Barry and Mr Gill told them applications for these courses were down in recent years and that the plans are recommendations at this stage. However, he said such recommendations ‘rarely fail’ and he has fears for the future of the campus.
“We were given assurances that the Castlebar campus will continue but I only accept such commitments on the basis of what I see and with four courses being discontinued and no additional courses on the CAO form, it is hard to have faith in that assurance. Saying a campus will remain open is one thing but will that be with 700 students or 70? There’s a big difference,” Cllr Kilcoyne said.

Call on Taoiseach
The meeting heard of plans for other courses in Castlebar but Senator Conway-Walsh described such talk as ‘aspirational’ and called on the under-pressure Taoiseach Enda Kenny to act while he remains in office.
“It’s all well and good having aspirations but they had nothing concrete before us. We cannot allow ourselves to be fobbed off with aspirational plans. It’s time all political parties in the county stood as one on this. The Taoiseach is on his last hurrah. If there is one thing he must do before he goes, it is to shore up the future of GMIT Castlebar,” said Senator Conway-Walsh.
Cllr Kilcoyne confirmed there are plans for a follow-up meeting in three months and that they were told there is an anticipated increase in numbers of students studying Nursing, Psychiatric Nursing and Childcare in the Castlebar campus.  
Deirdre Garvey resigned as Head of the campus last November, after fears were expressed about the long-term future of the campus due to funding issues.
GMIT told the Higher Education Authority last year that it could no longer support the campus from its own resources.
The Castlebar campus was established in 1994, after local campaigning led by Paddy McGuinness, and is one of three campuses which constitute GMIT together with its main campus in Galway City and its campus in Letterfrack, the National Centre for Excellence in Furniture Design and Technology.