Clarity sought on new training centre in Mayo town

Mayo Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh has submitted a Dáil parliamentary question – the fourth in as many years - asking the Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless to provide an update on a 2021 application for a Further Education and Training Centre in Ballyhaunis.

Deputy Conway-Walsh explained to the Western People that she asked the then Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe in November 2021 if he would engage with the Bank of Ireland on behalf of residents and businesses in Ballyhaunis to hand its then-recently closed premises over to the community for an educational facility. The building was later sold to a property development company and is being converted into apartments.

In a February 2022 question to the then Minister of State for Education and Skills Niall Collins, Deputy Conway-Walsh described Ballyhaunis as “a very vibrant, multicultural town, which results in challenges, particularly with regard to delivering training and apprenticeships within the community". 

“I ask the Minister of State [Collins] to take the whole town and the make-up of the population into consideration because delivering apprenticeships within the community so that people do not have to travel can result in many positive externalities that can feed into the whole of the community, helping those who are working very hard to ensure the community is vibrant. 

"The bank in Ballyhaunis has been taken away. It had a Bank of Ireland branch and another bank but there is no bank there now. 

"One of the best ways to ensure the town is sustainable and viable and to increase the human capital within it is to provide for apprenticeships and training in order that people can find work of the very same kind they would be doing in those apprenticeships in the area and meet the skills demands there. It is crucially important.” 

Deputy Conway-Walsh asked for an update again in a March 2022 question to Simon Harris, the then Minister for Higher Education. 

“As well as facilitating existing classes, the funding will facilitate apprenticeships. I want to single out Ballyhaunis which, as the Minister knows, has dozens of foreign nationals. The community is doing a brilliant job to build the capacity of these people. Having a centre would make all the difference.” 

Minister Harris told the Sinn Féin TD he’d ask his officials to “engage with SOLAS [a state agency set up in 2013 to improve training and upskilling opportunities] regarding it". A competitive call was under way, he added, “...and, from memory, applications are due in by the first week of April".

"It will be up to the local ETBs to prioritise the projects they wish to see funded in the first competitive capital call. I will ensure that my officials and SOLAS are aware of Ballyhaunis," said the minister.

The response to Deputy Conway-Walsh's latest parliamentary question will be awaited with interest in Ballyhaunis.