Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise my concern about the state of health of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, GMIT, headquarters and campus in Galway. Ordinarily and over the past years I have received calls to raise issues about the GMIT campus in Castlebar, but I recently received disturbing information from a solid source that there are serious financial, management and governance problems there.Some of this is manifested in the decline of certain programmes in which it should be a national leader, such as in hotel and catering management. Furthermore, the problems GMIT headquarters is grappling with will present a significant impediment to the delivery of a technological university for west. The GMIT Galway campus, and GMIT in general, represents a weak link in the Connacht-Ulster alliance for the delivery of such a technological university. This is terrible because if we cannot deliver a technological university in a timely fashion it means rural areas will be lagging behind on a much-needed and valuable third level institute.

Myself and Senators Paddy Burke and O'Mahony fought very hard for a recovery and sustainable plan for the GMIT Castlebar campus. We secured €3.75 million in ring-fenced funding to be spent over five years. I want to welcome the appointment of a new vice president of GMIT, Professor Neville McClenaghan, who will be based in and will look after Castlebar's interests and who will take up his post in the spring. It has a good academic plan for recovery.

We do not want all this to go down the tubes. The future is bright but for this and we all understand the umbrella organisation in Galway can bring the whole ship down. I ask that the Minister be invited in to discuss progress on the delivery of technological universities, to outline the state of health and of play in relation to GMIT headquarters in Galway and to address all the significant and serious issues I have raised today. It is an urgent matter. We cannot afford to be left behind in this regard.