Cllr scorns coverage in ‘local rag’

A local councillor has lambasted coverage provided in print to the recent announcement that €40 million has been granted for the development of Cavan Institute’s new campus.

The announcement was made at the beginning of December by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris, during a visit to the institute.

Cavan Institute was chosen as one of 10 locations around the country to become FET colleges of the future, and set to benefit from a combined investment of €250m.

Fine Gael’s Carmel Brady, who also serves as chair of Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board, noted that it had been the “largest ever” funding announcement made for the county.

However, Cllr Brady said she was “disgusted” to subsequently find that in the following week’s edition of The Anglo-Celt that reporting of the story had been “pushed onto page three” of the newspaper.

Her belief, she told the subsequent December monthly meeting of Cavan County Council, was that the announcement “warranted” coverage higher up from “the local rag as people call it”.

She continued by saying that she hoped her comments would filter back to the senior editorial team.

Cllr Brady’s comments elicited audible gasps from several elected members present, and the interjection briefly of Cathaoirleach John Paul Feeley.

Fellow party member Madeleine Argue, a member of the CMETB board, also shared her “disappointment” that the story didn’t receive “front page” coverage.

Clifford Kelly, Fianna Fáil, who serves as Chair of the Board of Management to Cavan Institute, described the announcement of funding as a “great day” for the county.

He said the investment was going to be of “huge benefit” to Cavan, and he pressed upon County Council, which has ownership of a portion of the site to work with CMETB on the matter.

Cllr Feeley himself welcomed the fact that the new campus was being built centrally and “not at a remove”, which would have run contrary to existing town development policy.