Pay for local assistants and apprentices at Ó Fiaich College raised in the Dáil by Louth TD

Personal assistants, including those who work at Ó Fiaich College in Dundalk and DIFE in Drogheda are to meet with Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris, shortly, to progress their campaign for better pay and conditions.

The meeting was revealed by Minister Harris last week, who pre-empted a question from Dundalk TD Ruairí Ó Murchú during a Dáil debate about apprenticeships.

Minister Harris said in his opening remarks:

“Deputy Ó Murchú is here and will probably raise support for students with disabilities in FET.

“We have many conversations around this and around the importance of personal assistants.

“I have asked my Department to do a significant body of work with SOLAS around how we embed good practice in supporting students with disabilities.

“I look forward to meeting the group the Deputy is bringing to see me about this issue shortly.”

Deputy Ó Murchú said:

“I welcome the comments by the Minister on the importance of the role personal assistants play in the further education sector.

“I know that all the stakeholders, the Department, SOLAS and Fórsa are all hopefully coming to a conclusion.

“I hope the Minister will meet those who have contacted me from the Drogheda Institute of Further Education, DIFE, Ó Fiaich Institute of Further Education and further afield.

“I also hope we can finally offer justice and proper pay to people who do necessary work for little pay in conditions that not many would deal with.”

The Sinn Féin TD also spoke about apprenticeships and said pay is an issue, along with the backlog and pay for educators.

He said Louth has been successful in further education and highlighted the Drogheda apprenticeship training centre, Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence in Dundalk, stating, “Louth and Meath Education and Training Board has done a huge piece of work.”

He said he has been speaking to LMETB about expanding the route maps for apprenticeships and further education.

He said:

“I will be speaking this week about when we are looking at community centres.

“I am thinking of the Redeemer Centre in Cox’s Demesne in Dundalk and the Muirhevnamor Community Centre and the possibilities of having access to apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships.

“I could not let this moment go without mentioning that I was recently at a launch in Muirhevnamor for shared space PEACE funding.

“It was named after a friend of mine who we lost relatively recently, Kevin Mulgrew. This is down to his huge involvement in the community.”