I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £11,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1964, for Grants-in-Aid to Universities and Colleges and to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
The Supplementary Estimate provides for the making of a grant of £11,000 in aid of the College of Pharmacy in the present financial year.
An application for State aid for the College was received from the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland who have pointed out that rapid and extensive developments in Pharmacy over the last 20 years have led to the lengthening and the intensification of the training courses for pharmacists in all advanced countries. In line with developments in other countries the Society introduced a full-time two-year course in 1952 and, later, as from 1961-62 a three-year degree course by arrangement with University College, Dublin.
The first-year students of the College for the three-year degree course attend full-time at University College, Dublin, where they follow the first-year science course. The second and third years leading to the B.Sc.(Pharm.) degree are spent in the College of Pharmacy. The College of Pharmacy recoups University College, Dublin, for the provision of teaching and technical facilities for the second and third-year courses.
The first third-year course commenced in the College of Pharmacy in October last and additional facilities by way of equipment and a greater number of qualified staff had to be made available as a matter of urgency. While, pending receipt of the report from the Commission on Higher Education, it would not be appropriate to take final decisions in relation to the arrangements to be made for pharmaceutical education in Ireland, it was considered proper to extend to the Pharmaceutical Society, on a temporary basis, such State assistance as was necessary to enable them to initiate and carry through the third-year course as planned. The amount of State aid estimated to be required in this connection in the present financial year is £11,000.
