Search Results for 'Katie Sweeney'

The High Court has ruled that the heads of two Vocational Educational Committees can retain a €12,500 a year allowance for transport liaison duties despite the fact that they ceased doing the duties two years ago.

The High Court has ruled that Galway VEC CEO Joe McDonagh can retain a €12,500 a year allowance for transport liaison duties despite the fact that he ceased doing the duties two years ago.

At the December meeting of the Mayo Vocational Education Committee this week a number of the members raised their concerns about the raising of the pupil to teacher ratios for PLC courses as part of this year’s Budget. Dr Katie Sweeney CEO of Mayo VEC told that under the new budget proposals one of the most worrying items was the increase in pupil teacher ratios for PLC course from 17 to one, to 19 to one. She read out a letter from the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) that has been sent to the Minister for Education Ruari Quinn objecting to the increase and the outcomes.

Next Thursday October 20 (starting at 8pm), Irish singer-songwriter Mundy will perform an intimate gig in Ballina Arts Centre. In April of this year he released his fifth studio album. Entitled Shuffle, the record is a collection of covers and is in effect his love song to his favourite American songwriters. For the album Mundy joined up with a new band – The Painbirds – a rootsy group which includes fiddle, keyboards, double bass and guitar.

A new learning management system which allows students to access subject resources online from home or anywhere they have internet access has been launched in Davitt College, Castlebar. The system was developed by Mark Jordan, ICT co-ordinator, and is seen as a further extension of the college’s commitment to the provision of the highest standard of learning supports for students.

The Mayo VEC committee held its first meeting in three months this week after an issue of gender balance in the group was resolved.

The Senior Traveller Training Centre in Castlebar is on the road to closure after an order to cut 18 student places from courses next September.

In a complete break from current cost-cutting trends, a number of development and expansion projects for schools and youth projects around Mayo have just been announced.

A request for information on Mayo VEC expenses by Castlebar Town Council has upset committee members.

Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston has resigned from Mayo VEC in order to focus on her work with local residents in the town. In her resignation letter she stressed that she wanted to concentrate on “my core responsibilities as a member of Castlebar Town Council and, especially, my work with residents’ associations”.