Connacht Tribune
Minister’s position kept open – but 50 GMIT jobs slashed
A Government Minister’s teaching position at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) will not be axed in the swingeing cutbacks planned at the third level college.
GMIT is planning to slash up to 50 jobs through a series of redundancies, non-replacement of staff who retire and non-renewal of temporary contracts.
The cuts are part of an overall plan to reduce the college’s €40 million-plus annual payroll costs.
However, the Connacht Tribune has learned that the position previously held by Seán Canney, Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, will be retained.
The Department of Building and Civil Engineering at the city campus is planning to fill the position left vacant by the Galway East TD, who is on leave or a ‘career break’ from his quantity surveying lecture position.
In an email to staff, Head of Department Mary Rogers, who is also a member of GMIT’s Governing Body, confirmed that they will seek to retain two positions for the new 2017/2018 academic year.
This was agreed, she said, following a meeting with current GMIT president Fergal Barry, and its financial controller Jim Fennell.
The email said: “Only two of the advertised posts will progress to interview – namely AL in Quantity Surveying (to cover Sean Canney’s hours) and AL in BIM (to cover hours for HDip in BIM and new BRE programme).”
Minister Canney was a lecturer but his hours will be covered by an assistant lecturer, according to the correspondence.
Ms Rogers informed staff that plan agreed with Messrs Barry and Fennell stated that “No additional academic hours will be approved over those already in place in the current academic year 2106/2017. Any additional hours required are to be dealt with through timetabling.”
Staff to student ratios will increase, she said, and so will the targets for the number of students enrolled.
Ms Roger’s email is an example of the implementation of cutbacks at a micro level, on the ground at its campuses in Galway and Mayo.
All other departments at GMIT are finalising cutback plans to rein-in spending.
GMIT has been running budget deficits for the four years to 2015, which, according to a new report, is threatening, “the viability and sustainability of its core operations in the longer term”.
The report, compiled by Michael O’Connell – a former financial controller at Limerick IT, when he was a colleague of Mr Barry – recommends cost reductions and income generation totalling €5 million for 2015-2020.
The suite of measures to reduce the €40 million-plus annual payroll costs, include non-replacement of staff who retire, non-renewal of temporary contracts, and redundancies.
The remaining staff will undergo the “retraining, reassignment and redeployment” to “create efficiencies” and to “absorb this reduction in capacity”.
On page four of the document, under sub-heading ‘control of staff costs’, Mr O’Connell, says, in bold and underlined: “GMIT’s staff costs have not reduced as its income has declined and it is necessary for this report to address in a definitive way this difficult but absolutely critical issue. The overriding requirement is that GMIT’s staff costs must be brought into line with what GMIT can afford.”
The report then outlines the argument in favour of job losses in academic and non-academic staff.
The O’Connell report says GMIT has 642 whole-time-equivalent (WTE) staff posts being paid by the exchequer, which is “50 posts more than authorised” under the State’s Employment Control Framework.
GMIT pays a further 42 WTE staff from its own resources, but the report says “these posts must be re-examined” because of the “significant and sustained overall deficit”.
It has a further 21 WTE staff self-financed by a campus company.
It highlights how GMIT is funding 705 posts, compared with 651 in the 2011/2012 academic year, when GMIT had 400 more students.
“Clearly this increase (in staff) has contributed very significantly to GMIT’s ongoing deficits,” it said.
The report identifies that a “large portion” of the unfunded excess cost of payroll is from non-academic staff.
“It is recommended that over a three-year period GMIT reduces its staff numbers to the authorised Employment Control Framework level of 592.”
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.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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
