Kilkenny senator flags 'growing distress amongst staff facing redundancy' at Carlow College

Senator Patricia Stephenson has called on the Minister for Further and Higher Education to provide urgent clarity on the future of staff and students affected by the closure of Carlow College.

“There is growing distress amongst staff who are facing redundancy with that process beginning as soon as August,” Senator Stephenson said in the Seanad.

“The transition as it was framed as positive news simply does not reflect the reality of what is happening to the college community. Staff have dedicated many years of service to Carlow College, they remained committed throughout discussions about the college’s future, believing there would be opportunities to transfer or deploy as part of a transition involving SETU. Instead, now many are facing redundancy asking the minister was the closure of the college always on the cards?

“There are serious questions about how this process has been managed, staff deserve to know when it became clear that a merger with SETU would not happen and what efforts were made to protect jobs and when was Carlow College advised it was not going to transfer to SETU”?

“Some administrative and support staff are earning little more than the minimum wage despite years of dedicated service; workers fear that they may only receive statutory redundancy rather than the enhanced arrangements they believed would be available”.

“The impact on students has been equally devastating. Students in the process of accepting offers and planning their futures and those opportunities suddenly disappeared.”

Senator Stephenson concluded that “the gap remains that the 87 staff were not involved in discussions this is brand new and shocking, for students also it has completely out of the blue.”