A proposal to replace the ageing Galway Technical Institute (GTI ) on Fr Griffin Road with a state-of-the-art and purpose-built Further Education and Training Campus on the grounds of Galway Community College in Wellpark has been forwarded by the Galway Roscommon Education and Training Board (GRETB ) to the Minster for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris for his consideration.
GTI has outgrown its current building and requires the addition of extra teaching spaces. It is also extremely limited in its capacity to grow the courses it offers," Minister Hildegarde Naughton said this week after she met Minister Harris to progress the project.
"The present premises is simply not suitable in 2022 as a site for further education and I impressed this on Minister Harris when I met him this week,” Minister Naughton said.
“People in Galway will be familiar with the ageing and outdated building presently occupied by GTI on Fr Griffin Road. The site is small at just over 1 hectare, with 12 prefabricated classrooms in use. Given the pressure of numbers, other property is also rented further along Fr Griffin Road,” the Galway Minister noted.
“The GRETB proposal is to build a new multi-million state of the art Further Education and Training Campus of circa 20,000m². There are three hectares of land available on the existing GRETB site in Wellpark which is capable of accommodating a new and purpose-built facility. It will provide a modern, future-proofed building and will be located on a site which has the capacity for further expansion,” Minister Naughton indicated.
She said that this proposal is of significant scale, and impressed on Minister Harris the impracticality of keeping GTI in its present location.
"The building is hampering the provision of further education in Galway and significant investment is required to allow its educational offering to continue to grow and adapt to the times.
"Minister Harris has the proposal on his desk and, given his engagement with the project, I am hopeful of a positive outcome in the short term," she added.
