A CITY councillor who notified the staff of St Enda’s School of its impending closure, a week before Limerick City VEC officially made the announcement, has been expelled as a member of the committee of the VEC.
Cllr Jim Long revealed to the Limerick Post that he was accused of bringing the VEC into disrepute because;
“I alleged that the Minister for Education was hiding behind the committee – I asked was the Department aware of the proposal and they said they made the decision on their own – I’m standing over what I said”.
He said that as a public representative, he felt it was his duty to notify the staff that a meeting of the committee on Monday, September 10, would vote on the proposed phased closure of the school.
The councillor, in China when the vote was taken, said:
“It was a breach of confidence on my part but I had been alerted by the staff of their concern for the school’s future and I felt it was my duty to tell them the situation”.
Accusing the VEC of excluding the Press from the meeting, where it was formally proposed by Management and the Trustees to close St Enda’s School on a phased basis, a former chair of the committee for 11 years, Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon, is critical of the non recording of the members’ voting preference on the issue.
“As chairman, I never asked members of the press to stand outside the door and in relation to voting, as is the custom on council meetings and hitherto at VEC meetings, the members publicly declare their vote – but that did not happen at the meeting of Limerick VEC on September 10, where the vote was secret. That’s not good enough when people were sitting on the fence on such a vital issue as children’s education and in particular the closure of St Enda’s School – the VEC committee is not a secret society”.
He said it was “deplorable” that a meeting of the City Council’s Environment Committee of which Cllr John Gilligan is chair, clashed with the VEC meeting of which he is also a member, which meant he was, therefore unable to vote.
Efforts to contact the VEC for comment were unsuccessful.
