Councillors call for extra support for GMIT Castlebar

Anton McNulty

MAYO county councillors yesterday voiced their support for the future sustainability of the Castlebar campus of GMIT and called on the Minister of Education to provide funding to secure its future.
Councillors discussed for over an hour at yesterday’s monthly meeting of the Council a special motion calling for all existing programmes and courses available at the Castlebar campus to be retained and that appropriate additional courses be provided to ensure the ongoing viability and expansion of the campus.
Last month management at GMIT informed staff at the Castlebar campus and local politicians of plans to cut four courses at the campus, namely Heritage Studies, Building Management, Digital Media and the Higher Certificate in Business in ICT Skills and Administration.
The management were accused of undermining the growth and development of the campus in Castlebar.
Particular criticism was directed at Dr Fergal Barry, President of GMIT, who was accused by a number of councillors of being arrogant to them when they met him to discuss the future of the campus.
Swinford based councillor Michael Smyth said that boards of Institutes of Technology are obliged to have an approved and published strategy and the Castlebar campus currently did not have one.
“One can only question the commitment of those who have responsibility to have such a plan in place at this stage, but one must also question the timing of the new unpublished or unapproved strategy to remove so called ‘non-viable programmes’,” he said.
Cllr Smyth also noted that Letterkenny IT has a campus in Killybegs which recently had €3 million in funding ringfenced by the Department of Education and asked why Mayo always had to be the poor relations?
Picking up on this point, Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said that the Castlebar campus was €1.8m in debt because it was not receiving adequate funding from Galway. He also called on funding to be ringfenced for the Castlebar campus and proposed a Council delegation meet with the Minister for Education to lobby for funding.
The proposal was unanimously supported by his fellow councillors.
A public meeting on the future of the Castlebar campus of GMIT will take place in the TF Royal Hotel in Castlebar this Friday, March 10 at 7.30pm. The speakers will include Lisa Chambers, TD, former councillor Paddy McGuinness - who was to the fore in campaigning for a third level campus in Castlebar during the 90s - and Wilson Bird of Castlebar Chamber of Commerce.