Ahern accused of ‘snubbing’ school of music delegation

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has been accused of snubbing the people of Cork over his apparent refusal to meet a delegation of local politicians to discuss the delay in funding a new school of music in the city.

As a result, irate teachers and students are expected to try and embarrass him by mounting protests at key EU summit meetings, and members of Cork City Council will decide next Monday if they will travel to Dublin to stage heir own protest outside the Dáil.

Gerry Kelly, a senior lecturer at the Cork School of Music, described Mr Ahern’s decision as an outrage.

“It’s a snub to the people of Cork, basically he’s insulting the people of Cork,” Mr Kelly said.

Apart from fundraising to put up to six candidates in the local election, Mr Kelly added that associates and supporters were planning an international ‘Tour of Shame’, including concerts in New York, London and Paris, to highlight delays in funding the 50m-plus project.

Mr Kelly also appealed to the public to turn up to next Monday night’s Cork City Council meeting to show their concern.

Cllr Brian Bermingham (FG), who proposed last month that the city council seek the a meeting, said he was also shocked at Mr Ahern’s response.

“The Taoiseach’s office wrote back and said he couldn’t meet us because he was too busy. He didn’t even give us the courtesy to say we could meet somebody else on the matter, be it Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy or the Minister for Education Noel Dempsey,” Cllr Bermingham said.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has described as “ludicrous” the fact that students and teachers of Cork School of Music are still operating from a hotel, with no indication yet from the Government as to when the new state-of-the-art centre will be built.

The project was originally announced in 1999 by the then Minister for Education, Micheál Martin.