Call to arms to save GMIT Castlebar Campus

INVESTMENT AT GMIT’S GALWAY CAMPUS  Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) is set to double the size of its Innovation Hub (iHub) building at the Galway campus following €5m funding approval from Enterprise Ireland. Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor announced the funding details during a visit to GMIT last Thursday. Pictured with the Minister were Barry Egan, Enterprise Ireland; George McCourt, GMIT Innovation Hub and Declan Moran and Matt Walsh of Notev, a former client company of GMIT’s iHub. Nortev develops and designs nebulisers for thoroughbred racehorses.  Pic: Aengus McMahon

Street protest to take place this Saturday

Anton McNulty

“The time for soft talk is over,” was the message from GMIT campaigners who have called on the people of Mayo to take to the streets to save the campus in Castlebar.
A protest march organised by the Mayo GMIT Action Group will take place in Castlebar this Saturday with organisers calling on local TDs, senators, and aspiring politicians to sign up and save Mayo GMIT.
“Mayo GMIT will survive, only if there are local people who will fight to save it,” said Action Group spokesperson, Harry Barrrett.
“Paddy McGuinness and his RTC Action Group fought damn hard in the 1990s to achieve the objective of getting a third-level institution up and running in this town. He did it because the people were there at the time to support him. Now, the call to arms must go out again.
“The Action Group will allow these people to come out on Saturday, May 27, at 3pm, on Market Square, Castlebar, to see who of our local TDs, comes out to sign a pledge that we will have ready for them on the day,” said the former Labour Castlebar Town Councillor.
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.
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.  
However, there were further concerns earlier this month when county councillors were informed of the potential redeployment of staff from the Castlebar campus of GMIT to the main campus in Galway.
Mr Barrett said it was now ‘high time’ that our local TDs were given a chance to ‘stop the downgrading of the college, the shocking redeployment of staff and the intrusion on students’. 
“The college has suffered on, without any serious political action to save it. We want to redress that, by giving them an opportunity to sign a pledge on the day, in front of the staff, students and the people of Castlebar.
“No longer can we stand idly by, while the downgrade continues. The recent announcement by government of a Working Group, has now proven to have been a cynical smokesreen for staff cuts and the loss of courses. This is a massive downgrade and it has been done without any consultation with staff or students. If this is allowed to continue, we will not have a viable Mayo GMIT and it will be lost to the town and county forever.
“The solution now is a political one, and we now invite all of our elected TDs and senators to attend on the day to pledge their support, in writing, in front of the people who elected them,” he concluded.