'It’s just fabulous': Don O'Leary overjoyed as Life Centre future secured

THE CORK Life Centre has secured a deal with the Department of Education which will guarantee its future sustainability, the centre’s director has said.

The Life Centre is a volunteer-led alternative education centre, located on Cork’s northside, which every year offers one-to-one tuition, up to Leaving Certificate, to students who - for one reason or another - have not thrived in the mainstream education system.

For several years, the centre has been in discussions with the Department of Education about funding, but, it is understood, in recent months a breakthrough occurred.

Following top-level interventions from the then-taoiseach Micheál Martin after intense lobbying from Cork North Central Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O’Sullivan, negotiations shifted to a considerably more positive tenor in recent times.

Now, just in time for Christmas, the centre’s director, Don O’Leary, has announced that a deal has been agreed, which will sustain the centre into the future.

Speaking exclusively to The Echo, Mr O’Leary said contracts for nine of the centre’s teachers were in train to be completed by the end of January, which would give reliability and sustainability in their employment to those teachers.

“Instead of planning from month to month, the Life Centre can now plan from year to year,” Mr O’Leary said.

“Of course, there are always issues, and I looked for contracts for 12 teachers, but we got nine, and I’m still looking for 12 but we’ve got the nine.

“The management team in the Life Centre will not be included in the pay deal, and neither will our counsellors, so there will be that element of the centre which will have to remain a charitable exercise, but it does allow the Life Centre to grow,” he said.

“That means we will have a role number, and that brings us under the Department of Education, and it is our hope and our ambition that, because we will be officially a pilot project within the department, there will be other life centres around the country.” 

Mr O’Leary said the department’s decision was an endorsement of the Life Centre’s model of education, of the centre’s staff, and, he said, particularly of the centre’s students, past and present, and their parents.

“For me, it’s just fabulous to see our students and teachers being recognised now, as they should have been from the start, and all credit to them, because it was a long time to be waiting for official recognition,” he said.

“It’s a day I would have loved to have shared with Brother Gary O’Shea, the Life Centre’s founder, he would have been absolutely thrilled that we have finally got official recognition.” Nash’s Boreen native Brother Gary, who founded the Cork Life Centre in 2000, passed away in 2020.

Mr O’Leary said he wanted to thank his deputy director, Rachel Lucey, and the centre’s former administrator, Thomas Mulcahy, and all of the staff, past and present.

“The only time any staff member moved on was when it became a necessity to live, and we have long since had volunteers who worked part-time jobs just so they could be part of the Life Centre,” he said.

“I also want to pay special tribute to the Cork politicians, every single one of them, party or non-party, every single one of them has been hugely supportive.

“Pádraig O’Sullivan approached me and he stood by us, I think often at cost to his own political career, and former taoiseach Micheál Martin has expended a lot of political capital to help us.” Mr O’Leary added that Wexford Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe had been a great friend to the Life Centre in his role as chair of the Joint Oireachtas Education Committee, and had invited several students to address the committee.

“I want to thank the people of Cork, The Echo, the Irish Examiner and 96FM, and most importantly our students and their parents,” Mr O’Leary said.