From ‘integration’ to ‘elimination’: how efforts to save Carlow College unravelled

CARLOW College staff were not told that the institution would close and jobs would be lost until 19 May of this year – almost three months after its president had warned the higher education minister James Lawless that a proposal from South-East Technological University (SETU) involved a “minimal transfer of staff”.

By the time the announcement was made, governors and property trustees had approved the form of a deal providing for a two-year wind-down, phased redundancies and the eventual transfer of the college campus and buildings to SETU.

Documents obtained exclusively by The Nationalist under freedom of information legislation reveal that Carlow College had entered talks seeking equivalent jobs for employees who wanted to remain in similar roles. It also hoped that some of its courses could continue within SETU.

Neither aim was secured and management moved from seeking equivalent grade jobs for staff to asking for ring-fenced SETU roles before accepting that employees would have to compete openly for any future vacancies.

The college also made a last-minute case to protect its English and history degree only hours before governors were told that none of its existing courses would continue at SETU. By 6 May, those governors faced a stark financial choice: accept a two-year ‘teach-out’ and phased redundancies or face an immediate wind-up in July with no money for redundancy packages.

Carlow College’s governing body agreed its opening negotiating position on 3 March after college president Fr Conn Ó Maoldhomhnaigh objected to SETU’s proposed wind-down of the institution.

This agreed opening position contained a number of principles, including one that stated every employee who wanted to remain in their role should be offered a job ‘in a publicly funded education institution at the same or nearest grade level which they currently occupy, ensuring continuity and fairness of employment’.

The college sent those principles to the Department of Further and Higher Education on 11 March following a meeting involving Carlow College, SETU and department officials. It should be noted that the college’s negotiating position hadn’t been accepted by either SETU or the department.

Five days earlier, on 6 March, higher education minister James Lawless had indicated to Fr Conn that at least some jobs were likely to go.

‘I think it has been clear that it may not be possible to retain all staff currently employed by Carlow College in any future arrangement … it is, therefore, anticipated that some rationalisation may, unfortunately, have to occur,’ he wrote.

‘This is not my preference or position but rather a statement of the practical realities,’ he added.

By late April, Carlow College was seeking more limited protections for employees.

On 24 April, a consultant working for the college said it wanted the proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) to show that SETU was prepared to employ relevant Carlow College staff without committing the university to do so. But a draft framework supplied by SETU the previous day had said that communications ‘must not imply institutional integration, staffing guarantees or future campus commitments’.

A revised draft of the MOU sent by SETU on 30 April confirmed that there would be no automatic transfer of staff. Any future SETU jobs would be filled through open, competitive and merit-based recruitment.

The minutes of a Carlow College governing body meeting on 6 May suggest that a proposal to reserve some roles for college staff had received a more positive response from SETU but was rejected by the Department of Further and Higher Education Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS). ‘A proposal for ring-fencing roles for Carlow College staff was discussed and SETU were favourable, but this was ruled out by DFHERIS because of current public policies,’ the minutes state.

The FOI records do not identify the policies involved, who made the decision or how many jobs might have been covered. The Nationalist sought clarification from the department, Carlow College and SETU but did not receive answers to those questions.

A department spokesperson said it had not attended the meeting referred to in the minutes and could not comment on its record – and this is where it becomes unclear who pulled the trigger on redundancies. The spokesperson said Carlow College was a private employer and neither the department nor the Higher Education Authority had a role in its staffing, recruitment or redundancy decisions.

SETU was also an autonomous body responsible for its own staffing, the spokesperson said, while Carlow College would retain full responsibility for its employees during the teach-out.

When asked for comment, Carlow College’s president’s office said it was focused on preparing for students to return and would continue working with SETU and the department during the teach-out period. “The college will have no further comment on this matter,” it added.

SETU said the framework agreement followed extensive engagement between the three parties. “As a number of matters remain subject to ongoing consideration, it would not be appropriate to comment at this time,” a SETU spokesperson said.

“SETU remains committed to working constructively with Carlow College, the department and other stakeholders.” The documents released to The Nationalist present a mixed picture of the support to Carlow College provided by the department and SETU.

Minister Lawless’s letters were supportive in tone. On 15 December, he affirmed ‘my support, and that of my department’ for the process. On 6 March, he said he ‘remains supportive of the engagement process’.

The minister said he was open to an evidence-based funding case and the 6 May minutes indicate that department funding made the teach-out and redundancy package possible. But that support had limits. Funding would be considered only after a due diligence report, while the minister referred to ‘the limits of what I can do’.

He stressed that there was ‘not a predetermined outcome’, that both institutions had ‘full agency and autonomy’ and that job losses were likely.

The college believed the process was delivering much less than it had expected. In a letter to minister Lawless dated 24 February, Fr Conn said Carlow College was being offered ‘elimination’ rather than the ‘integration’ it believed had been promised ‘from an taoiseach and an tánaiste’.

The records are also mixed on SETU. The minutes of Carlow College’s governing body meeting on 6 May say SETU had ‘been supportive in the process’ and was favourable towards ring-fencing staff roles. A SETU director had also called the college’s case for English and history ‘entirely valid’, the minutes stated.

However, draft agreements from 30 April onwards made SETU’s involvement conditional on the transfer of the land and the department providing funding in advance for all costs, including redundancies. SETU had also sought written confirmation that it would not need to provide a business case for taking the campus and drafted the agreement so it would assume no liabilities.

The draft agreement did not guarantee jobs for Carlow College staff or commit to keeping the campus in educational use.

Fr Conn wrote that SETU’s proposal offered ‘no clear plan for Carlow College integration other than the protection of enrolled learners’, something that he noted was already a legal requirement.

The records, therefore, show a department that encouraged and ultimately funded an orderly wind-down, but limited its commitments, and a university that co-operated on some issues while negotiating terms that protected it from liabilities and avoided guarantees on staff or the campus.

This isn’t a complete picture of either body’s conduct. The records were held and released by Carlow College; some were withheld or redacted, and they contain little of SETU’s or the department’s internal discussions.

The released records provide a partial explanation as to why staff weren’t told about the threat to their jobs until 19 May, but they don’t account for the entire delay.

On 12 December 2025, Fr Conn had told the minister that the college would not discuss individual human resources matters with staff until SETU gave it a realistic indication of what integration would involve. It had received ‘no concrete direction in this area’, he wrote. Three days later, the minister encouraged the college to keep its community ‘appropriately appraised’ through town hall meetings and newsletters.

By 24 February 2026, the president warned the minister that SETU’s proposal was ‘likely to be an unacceptable position’ for the governing body and would mean a ‘minimal transfer of staff’. His letter asked which roles would remain and for how long, who would pay for redundancies and how staff morale could be maintained.

On 6 March, the minister replied that the possibility of job losses should be ‘communicated clearly to staff so that nobody is taken by surprise’.

The released documents do not explain why staff were not warned at that point or during the period between late February and 19 May. But they do show that the eventual announcement was tightly managed.

Minutes of the 6 May governing body meeting record the chair as saying that communication with staff ‘needs to be controlled’ and stressing ‘total confidentiality’. An email dated 7 May planned for the MOU to be approved by the relevant boards and for staff to be told ‘later that afternoon’.

That sequence was followed on 19 May: the governing body and property trustees approved the form of the memorandum of understanding and staff were informed later that day.

The documents point to two reasons for the timing: the college initially said it was waiting for clarity from SETU, while later records show the announcement being arranged as part of a controlled sequence after approval of the deal. They do not fully explain the gap between 24 February, when the president warned of a ‘minimal transfer of staff’ and raised questions about redundancies, and the announcement in May.

Fr Conn later told an Oireachtas committee on 15 July that concern about student stress during exams was a reason for the delay. That explanation does not appear in the released records, although its absence doesn’t prove it wasn’t considered; some documents were withheld or redacted.

The 6 May minutes record that none of Carlow College’s existing courses would continue at SETU. Existing students would finish their studies through a two-year teach-out, with staff numbers reduced in phases as student numbers fell.

The previous afternoon, the college’s vice-president had pleaded a final case for its BA (Hons) in English and history. In an email sent on 5 May, he described the course as Carlow College’s most consistent programme for enrolment and academic research. He said SETU offered no equivalent and described it as the only course in the country that treated English and history as a single honours programme rather than as part of a joint or combined arts degree.

He also highlighted the related MA and postgraduate diploma in Irish regional history.

‘I would be remiss if I did not point out the above,’ he wrote.

A SETU official replied 18 minutes later, saying the points about enrolment, the programme’s distinctive nature, the lack of duplication within SETU and the related postgraduate courses were ‘all entirely valid’.

However, the official said the MOU had to remain ‘high-level and non-determinative’ on future programme decisions. SETU would use its ‘best endeavours’ to increase its provision in those subjects in line with Carlow College’s accredited courses.

‘Nothing in the current draft is intended to diminish the standing or contribution of English and history at Carlow College,’ the response said.

The following morning, governors were told that none of the college’s courses would continue at SETU. Prospective students could instead apply for similar types of courses at SETU or other higher education institutions.

Draft documents offered somewhat more hopeful prospects for social care and psychology, although the department told The Nationalist that the expansion of social care places at SETU arose from a separate 2026 process run by the Higher Education Authority to address skills shortages. SETU was among several providers approved to increase numbers on existing social care programmes.

The records also show that proposed wording intended to guarantee an educational future for the college’s 17-acre campus was weakened during negotiations.

A draft dated 1 May said SETU ‘commits to the use of the campus for educational purposes and to integrate the campus fully into its physical infrastructure’. By 6 May, that wording had been replaced by a provision saying SETU would ‘consider educational and related uses of the campus’ after it was transferred.

Any future use would be subject to SETU’s own priorities and available funding, according to later drafts released under freedom of information legislation.

At the 6 May meeting, governors were told that Carlow College could not remain financially viable beyond the end of the academic year. Brian Barry, the senior college executive who led its side of the negotiations with SETU, outlined the consequences if the deal was rejected.

‘If the college does not agree to the proposal, the result would be an immediate wind-up in July 2026 with no money to pay redundancies,’ he stated.

The governing body agreed to continue negotiating a package that provided for a two-year teach-out period, phased redundancies and the eventual transfer of the college campus to SETU. On 19 May, the college’s governing body and the property trustees approved the MOU.

In his opening statement to an Oireachtas committee hearing in July, Fr Conn said the college had tried “at every stage” to find a route for its employees to become SETU staff, but that this had proved impossible. He said management instead secured an enhanced redundancy package of four weeks’ gross pay for each year of service, capped at two years’ salary. Funding was also secured to allow many employees to continue working during the teach-out.

The FOI records reveal the scale of what was lost from Carlow College’s original position. Its call for equivalent jobs became a failed attempt to secure ring-fenced roles, followed by open competition for any future SETU vacancies. Its appeal to preserve existing courses ended with a teach-out, while a commitment to use the campus for education was reduced to a promise that SETU would consider it.

According to the college’s records, funding from the department prevented an immediate financial collapse, while SETU engaged in the process and was supportive on some individual issues. But the final arrangement fell far short of the integration that Carlow College said it had expected.

It also left an important question unanswered: why were staff not warned for almost three months after the president wrote that SETU’s proposal would mean a ‘minimal transfer of staff’?

By the time staff heard news of the closure on 19 May, their fate had been sealed.