Cork Life Centre cautiously welcomes increased funding

Don O'Leary, director of Cork Life Centre, said the allocation by the department of a further 3,000 co-operation hours a year, doubling the centre’s previous teaching hours, was good news. File picture

The Cork Life Centre has cautiously welcomed news of increased funding from the Department of Education, and a commitment from the department to the centre’s long-term sustainability, while allowing the centre to retain its current teachers.

Don O’Leary, director of the Cork Life Centre, said the allocation by the department of a further 3,000 co-operation hours a year, doubling the centre’s previous teaching hours, was good news, although he noted it did not resolve all of the centre’s staffing issues.

The allocation was confirmed by Education Minister Norma Foley in a letter to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education.

The centre had withdrawn from discussions in July when, it said, the department had been unwilling to pay its current teachers, proposing instead to transfer staff to the centre from the Cork Education Training Board.

In her letter, Ms Foley said: “The alternative arrangements now being put in place provide increased funding for staff already working in the Cork Life Centre, and do not involve external staff.”

Alternative learning experience

Cork Life Centre, situated on the city's northside, offers an alternative learning experience to young people, and it currently has 55 students, all of whom have faced considerable challenges in the mainstream system.

Mr O’Leary cautioned that the Life Centre could not yet say it was being guaranteed a sustainable future, but he welcomed the department’s commitment to engage with the centre on agreeing a framework for sustainability for the centre, and said a timeline from the department would be helpful.

“The last thing we would want is for anyone to think ‘the Life Centre is saved’, because we have a long way to go yet, but this is a positive step, and we are cautiously optimistic,” Mr O’Leary said.

“Negotiations have been fraught at times, and it would have been a lonely station if we hadn’t been so heartened by the outpouring of good wishes we have received from people all over the country.

“That support has meant the world to the teachers and students of Cork Life Centre.”