Staff and students at Carlow College St Patrick’s are calling for greater transparency over the institution’s future.
They’re due to address the media ahead of an Oireachtas Committee hearing examining the proposed transfer of higher education assets and collective redundancies affecting 87 staff.
Campaigners are seeking stronger protections for workers and students, and want meaningful engagement with all parties involved in the process.
Dr Regina Donlon, lecturer and staff representative says they are being left in the dark “There were potentially a number of other outcomes and solutions particularly in terms of educational policy that could have been explored but ultimately staff were not informed about this until the 19th of May when a deal had already been completed and that deal is a two-year teach out, the loss of 87 jobs and the removal of 600 students from the centre of Carlow town”.
She adds; “The buildings of the college will remain but the people, the programmes and the generations of expertise are being lost; it’s going to be very, very hard for staff to go back into that institution in August and see up to 25% of your colleagues have disappeared, if you’re a student I would imagine it’s going to be particularly hard to walk into that building”.
