RELATIONS between the Department of Education and management at Carlow RTC continue to be a little frosty, due to an ongoing staff problem and a failure to see eye to eye over the college's "Outreach" centres.

Management in Carlow RTC has been at loggerheads with the Department since last year, when the college opened two "Outreach" centres, offering courses in Kilkenny and Wexford. The centres were opened without sanction from the Department, which took the view that they should be closed immediately.

However, students had already commenced Outreach courses and, had they been cancelled, might have been in position to take legal action. So the courses were validated by the NCEA for one year, after which students would transfer into Carlow RTC itself.

Unfortunately, the college had already advertised for this autumn's Outreach intake by the time this decision was made. This is likely to be the last intake.

The conflict may have soured relations on other matters. The Department has been slow to solve a problem involving TUI staff in Carlow - more than 20 full time and part time contract staff have not had their contracts renewed this year and are being paid on a piecemeal basis, leading, in some cases, to serious loss of income.

The Department of Education has requested information from the college on staffing levels, but apparently officials were unsatisfied with the information produced. Meanwhile, repeated requests by college management for a meeting with Department officials to address the staffing problem have so far yielded no result.

It is now hoped that there will soon be a meeting between the Department and a delegation from the college's governing body.

Peter McMenamin, assistant general secretary of the TUI, says there is "an ongoing problem" with staffing. Ken Broderick, TUI staff representative in Carlow RTC, says that unless the situation is resolved quickly, staff could be forced to take extreme action.

The students' union is unhappy at the failure of college management to resolve the situation. According to students' union president Damien Keogh, "the students have been messed around enough already." The administration was unavailable for comment.