CITY TRIBUNE
GMIT expects to break even following staff cuts
Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) will return to surplus in the next academic year, its current President has predicted.
Dr Fergal Barry said the college’s deficit will be less than €1 million in the current academic year, and further job cuts will bring the institute back into the black.
Dr Barry’s statement comes after a shock report predicted the demise of GMIT unless deep cuts – including up to 50 job losses – were implemented.
And despite his reassurances, staff at the college fear a “surplus to requirements” list is being drawn up as the college looks to cut its pay bill through redundancies if necessary.
As revealed in the Galway City Tribune last week, Michael O’Connell – a former financial controller at Limerick IT, when he was a colleague of Dr Barry – compiled a report that recommends cost reductions and income generation totalling €5 million for 2015-2020.
The report called into question the future sustainability of the institute, and warned that drastic cutbacks are necessary to arrest the perilous financial decline faced by GMIT.
It predicted the third level college’s cash reserves will dry-up completely in three years, and it “will become technically insolvent”, if corrective action is not taken.
GMIT, according to the report, made an operating loss for the past four years, and has accumulated operating deficits of €6.7 million during that time. Its reserves now stand at less than €8 million.
On current trends, “the viability and sustainability of its core operations in the longer term will be threatened”, according to the report’s author, Michael O’Connell.
He recommended a suite of measures to reduce the €40 million-plus annual payroll costs, including 50 job cuts through non-replacement of staff who retire, non-renewal of temporary contracts, and redundancies.
The remaining staff should undergo “retraining, reassignment and redeployment” to “create efficiencies” and to “absorb this reduction in capacity”.
The O’Connell report has not been ratified by GMIT’s Governing Body, but it is understood Education Minister Richard Bruton, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and officials in the Higher Education Authority believe its recommendations are necessary to save GMIT.
One Governing Body member, who did not wish to be named, said the thrust of the O’Connell report is supported.
“We cannot continue to operate by incurring losses of this size every year. If there are courses where there are only five students on them, well then that’s not sustainable. We also have a situation where there is a shortage of nurses but there is a cap on the number of students who can enrol in the nursing course at Castlebar, which is impacting on that the ability of that campus to break even,” the member said.
However, another member said there is a divergence of opinion at Governing Body level.
“The O’Connell report was not formally ratified,” the source said. “It was discussed at Governing Body level but it was not voted on and was not ratified.”
The source confirmed that a nine-point plan, drawn-up by Jim Fennel, GMIT’s financial controller, was “discussed and ratified” by the Governing Body. It is understood there is some overlap in both documents.
Another Governing Body member told the Galway City Tribune that there was a certain amount of “gamesmanship” going on, as well as politicking, between the Galway campuses and the Castlebar campus, which is under threat.
In a statement issued last Friday, Dr Barry said: “GMIT’s executive and finance function has been actively implementing many of the recommendations of an independent external report (O’Connell Report 2015) and an Action Plan approved by the Institute’s Governing Body.
“As a result, GMIT’s deficit will be less than €1m at the end of this academic year (2016/2017) and the Institute will be returning to surplus on the September 1, 2017 for the Academic Year 2017/2018.
“GMIT will be using its considerable reserves to support the implementation of its academic plan. To date planned staffing level reductions have been and continue to be achieved through non-replacement of retirements and the reassignment of staff to areas of growth,” he said.
Dr Barry pointed out that there has been an increase in demand for some course at GMIT following the CAO ‘change of mind’ deadline; and it has also introduced new courses.
Meanwhile, TUI Deputy General Secretary Dr Aidan Kenny, who has overall responsibility for third level in the trade union, visited the Galway campus and outlined to members the existence of the O’Connell report and the threat it posed to their employment terms and conditions.
The meeting heard claims that the Government and HEA have “bypassed” the Governing Body and instructed the college to implement the cuts. The meeting heard how a “surplus to requirement” list is being prepared.
TUI, as well as members in the two other staff unions, SIPTU and IMPACT, are concerned at the lack of implementation.
Last week, a motion of no confidence in the Board of GMIT was disused at Castlebar Municipal District.
There is anger in Mayo at a supposed ‘ultimatum’ to staff to transfer to Galway; there is also a sense in Mayo that Castlebar is being ‘run down’ at the expense of investment in Galway.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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