Gorey Senator Malcolm Byrne has been defending the decision to site a purpose built campus for the provision of further education and training in Kilkenny at a cost of 40 million euro.
There have been criticisms of the move in light of the continued delay in securing a campus for SETU in Wexford. Questions have arisen in relation to population, where the population of Kilkenny is 100,000 and Wexford has a population 160,000. Senator Byrne maintained Kilkenny had not got the facilities to provide further education, but Wexford does " We actually have several further education college campuses across the county. What happened in Kilkenny is that they didn't have the facilities that were as good as in Wexford." Senator Byrne says the Wexford SETU Project is on schedule " There is also the investment on the new site for the Wexford Campus. The money has been provided for that campus. There is a process that is going on around the purchase of that particular piece of land. The intention will be that Wexford County Council can use it's compulsory purchase order powers on this piece of land. There is negotiations that are going to happen. It is going to happen. There is no delay on the behalf of the department of Wexford County Council."
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