Council angered at ‘disturbing’ GMIT development

Anton McNulty

The redeployment of GMIT staff from their campus in Castlebar has been described as ‘disturbing’ and the ‘beginning of the end’ for the Castlebar campus if it is allowed to go ahead.
The issue of the potential redeployment of staff from the Castlebar campus of GMIT to the main campus in Galway was raised at this afternoon’s [Tuesday] monthly meeting of Mayo County Council after councillors were informed of the developments before the meeting.
The long-term future of the Castlebar campus came under the microscope earlier this year when plans were revealed to scrap four courses currently on offer at GMIT Castlebar.
Cathlaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr A McDonnell described the latest development as very disturbing and called for the Council to take action to prevent it.
“The news that is just breaking is very disturbing. The current GMIT staff...some of them have been offered positions in Galway and if they refuse they have been threatened they will be only offered employment outside of the Galway area, otherwise in Cork or Donegal.
“That news is extremely disturbing and very heavy handed. If it goes ahead it will be the beginning of the end for GMIT and it is time we take action and do what we have to do,” he said at the meeting.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Minister of Education, Richard Bruton recently announced the establishment of a Working Group with the ‘objective of developing a plan for a sustainable future and growth options’ for the GMIT campus in Castlebar.  
The councillors expressed their frustration that the board of GMIT were informing staff they were to be redeployed before the review of the campus is undertaken.
Fine Gael councillor Jarlath Munnelly proposed a motion that no decision regarding the redeployment of staff in Castlebar should be made until the review process is complete.
“Any moves to redeploy staff while this process is underway will undermine the review that is taking place and undermine the campus in Castlebar. I propose we write to the Higher Education Authority and the Minister for Education and propose no action be taken by the management of GMIT regarding the redeployment of staff or any other significant decision be made in advance of the review,” he said.
His proposal was met with unanimous support from across the Chamber and councillors agreed that they will meet later in the week to decide what course of action they should take to prevent the redeployment of staff from the Castlebar campus.