THE director of South West College is “confident” that plans to build a “world class” campus costing £25 million in Enniskillen will not be thwarted post-Brexit.
Malachy McAleer says the proposal to move its campus from its current location on the Dublin Road to the site of the former Erne Hospital is based “on a rock solid business case.”
“This process is independent of our relationship with the European Union,” Mr. McAleer told The Impartial Reporter.
“The project, which is based on a rock solid business case, enjoys good political and community support and I would be confident that this will translate into a successful outcome at the comprehensive spending review,” he said. 
The College has submitted the detailed design application for the new Erne campus to the planning department at Fermanagh and Omagh District Council. Assuming the application is successful, the process of appointing a construction team will be finalised in early 2017. The Department for the Economy will then bid into the Comprehensive Spending Review in the Autumn for the funding over the next four years to complete the project. 
South West College avails of a number of funding opportunities from the European Union. 
Mr. McAleer explained: “The College has constantly bid over the last eight years for funding to support social inclusion, sustainability, student mobility, enterprise and widening access and participation. The College has been very successful in this pursuit and there have been many notable successes including funding of the Crest Centre in Enniskillen.
“Further, the College is one of the largest providers of apprenticeships, skills and training in Northern Ireland and a significant portion of this funding comes from Europe through our managing government department. There are other related issues such as cross Border movement of students and live European Funding bids which have reached the latter stages of approval.
“The College will work closely with Government Departments and political representatives to ensure our position is strongly represented prior to the UK Treasury Autumn statement,” he said. 
Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson met with Mr. McAleer at the College’s Crest Centre last week to discuss the results of the EU referendum 
“We are finding that groups like Crest and others want some degree of certainty but unfortunately there isn’t that certainty at this time. Brexit has already happened here in the North; businesses have already been informing us about contracts that have cancelled, there are a number of businesses that thought about relocating here but have pulled the plug. 
“I don’t think there will be a village, town, community, area not affected by Brexit. There are thousands of groups like Crest dotted across the landscape of Fermanagh, Derry and Belfast that have benefitted from EU funding. Brexit will have an impact on this constituency. Brexit is bad for the economy, bad for business, bad for communities, bad for your health,” said Ms. Anderson, speaking to this newspaper.