News
GMIT lecturers set to strike over conditions
Lecturers at GMIT are to strike on Wednesday in the first step in a campaign of industrial unrest over what they deem crisis issues in the sector.
Institute of Technology academic staff represented by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) will picket the institute on the Dublin Road after members voted in a national ballot by a margin of 92% in favour of industrial action.
Key concerns include chronic underfunding of the sector, a 32% rise in student numbers while lecturer numbers have fallen by 10% and the precarious employment status of many lecturers.
The union is urging the Department of Education and Skills to meaningfully engage with them and to urgently address the issues.
TUI President Gerry Quinn said lecturers at the institutes see first-hand the damage that an era of austerity cuts wreaks on the student experience of higher education.
Funding was cut by 35% (€190m) between 2008 and 2015. Over the same time period, student numbers rose by a staggering (32%) 21,411 while lecturer numbers actually fell by 9.5% (535).
“This has had a direct, detrimental effect on the quality of service to students and the working conditions of academics.”
While the jump in numbers attending third level education is welcome, the complete failure to provide appropriate funding and to maintain appropriate staffing levels is having a direct, negative impact on the student experience of higher education, he insisted.
“Students now experience larger class sizes, less access to laboratories and libraries and sharp cuts to tutorials and other student supports. Meanwhile, lecturer workload has increased significantly and intolerably in recent years.”
He pointed to the findings of a survey carried out by TUI last April which showed that lecturers are experiencing high levels of work related stress as a result of cutbacks and rationalisation measures.
“In the absence of any move towards remedying this unacceptable situation, academic staff in the institutes have been left with no option but to take strike action.”
The union also opposes the Government’s decision to press ahead with the Technological Universities Bill, which they say will effect huge change without full commitment to proper resourcing.
“The requirement that Institutes of Technology must merge before they can apply for Technological University status is more related to rationalisation of the sector than to any academic considerations based on the particular missions, values and ethos of particular institutes,” said Mr Quinn.
“‘We remain gravely concerned about the potential consequences of this Bill given the current crisis of underfunding, understaffing and precarious employment in the institutes.”
The industrial unrest will do nothing alleviate the college’s student experience with a recent report showing GMIT has one of the highest student drop-out rates of all Institutes of Technology in the country. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) study of progression in Irish higher education between 2012 and 2014 showed the college had a 43% drop-out rate for higher certificate level courses, second only to Tralee IT (44%); a 33% drop-out rate for ordinary degree courses, the highest for ITs; and a rate of 26% for honours degree courses, the highest in the country.
GMIT President Fergal Barry, however, insisted that about one in five students leave before qualifying and the figures were skewed by a number of courses with just a handful of students.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
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.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
