NAAS: 23 April 2001: by Brian Byrne. The Tallaght Institute of Technology has agreed in principle to provide courses for an ‘outcentre for higher education’ in Naas, following a recent presentation made by Cllr Timmy Conway on the development of Naas.
The director of the IT, Columb Collins has written to Cllr Conway confirming that the institute ‘supports the development’ of such an outcentre in Naas, and will provide ‘appropriate’ courses when it is established.
“This could move fairly fast,” Cllr Conway said last week after receiving the confirmation. “The idea is still based on the fact that we have 20 acres zoned for educational purposes in Millennium Park, but I would envisage beginning the outcentre in some other building in Naas pending the further development of Millennium.”
A ‘task force’ of interested parties is likely to be convened soon, involving senior management of both Naas UDC and Kildare County Council, Cllr Conway said, revealing that preliminary discussions had already taken place on how the project might be further progressed.
The outcentre would provide third level courses tied in with the needs of companies setting up in Millennium Park and similar projects around Naas, but Cllr Conway said it would also provide facilities related to the needs of companies already established in other mid-Kildare centres, such as Newbridge.
“The idea is that certificate and diploma courses will be provided through the outcentre, and graduates could then go on for degree courses at Tallaght or Maynooth,” he said.
Cllr Conway said that a previous effort to attract such an outreach centre had been well progressed two years ago, with Athlone RTC.
“But then the minister put a stop to the development of such centres and it came to nothing,” he said. “Now that stop has been lifted, and I understand he is quite keen that one should be established in Naas. When we discussed the proposition with Tallaght a couple of years ago, they were not ready because they were still in a process of development themselves. But now Mr Collins has confirmed that they will support us.”