Call on department to 'work harder' with Cork Life Centre

A GOVERNMENT TD has called on the Department of Education to compromise in its dealings with the Cork Life Centre.

Cork North Central Fine Gael TD, Colm Burke called on the Department of Education and the Cork Education Training Board (CETB) to “work harder” for the good of the young people in the northside education facility.

The Life Centre each year offers one-to-one tuition to 55 young people, aged between 12 and 18, who have not thrived in the mainstream education system.

Mr Burke’s intervention comes in the week the Life Centre’s director, Don O’Leary, revealed that the centre had lost eight teachers over the summer holidays.

Mr O’Leary said the teachers had been forced to take on employment opportunities elsewhere because of the precarious nature of their employment in the centre.

The centre has, for several years, been in unresolved talks with the department over funding, with an ongoing issue being that fully qualified teachers are working on “co-operation hours”, are paid part-time rates without pension rights or access to incremental pay increases, and are forced to sign on for social protection payment out of term.

Over the past two years, the Life Centre has been resisting what it has said are efforts by the department to place the centre under the control of the CETB.

Recently, the Life Centre has rejected departmental review recommendations of out-of-school education provision, which Mr O’Leary said focussed on short-term interventions, whereas the Life Centre depends on building relationships with young people.

Mr O’Leary has said the report’s recommendations would, if implemented, mean “the end of the Life Centre”.

Mr Burke said: “The recognition has to be given that Don O’Leary and the Life Centre have provided absolutely fantastic service over a long number of years now, and there’s a lot of young people have benefited,” he said.

“The question now is how do we put it into a proper structure which would maintain the independence that it currently has, and the appropriate level of funding provided?” 

Mr Burke said a compromise was needed, which all parties could be satisfied.

“In particular, the most important people to look after are the children to make sure that they can get the service and support that they require,” he said.

“I think we all need to work harder to try and get that done. The department, the ETB needs to work harder.”