A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I should like to thank you most sincerely for allowing me to raise this issue on the Adjournment. The recent decision on the future of the rural home economics college in Navan, County Meath, is most serious for a large number of people in the midland counties. As the Minister is aware, in 1980 the nuns at St. Martha's College informed the county committee of agriculture that they were withdrawing their services from that college the following year. On the committee of agriculture we were alarmed about the possibility of the withdrawal of these services from the young ladies who were interested in home economics.
We met the superior of the college and asked her permission to have negotiations with the Department of Agriculture and the board of ACOT to ensure the future of St. Martha's College and the services being provided by that college. When we contacted the Department we were told that negotiations were taking place on the taking over of the college. Last year before the general election we were informed by the then Minister for Agriculture, now the Minister for Finance, that the college would be taken over by the Government when and if he was returned to office. He gave that commitment. Recently he introduced a budget which provided £14 million to the board of ACOT to run their services for the coming year. In their February estimate they set aside £33,000 for the renting of the college premises for a 12 month period. I was delighted to hear that.
There has been an average of 71 pupils per year in the college since it was founded in 1932, and a large number of them have gone on into the field of home economics in hospitals and so on. They have been very successful and many of them have become good farmers' wives. In 1975, 21 per cent of the population were directly involved in agriculture. In 1981 the figure was 18.5 per cent. This figure is higher than the figure in any other country in Europe. The training at St. Martha's and the technical skills taught were cost effective compared with other services.
In 1979 there were 62 pupils at the college. In 1980 there were 51 or 52. In 1981 there were 42. The fall in numbers was not due to a lack of applications but because pupils were being transferred to other colleges throughout the country, one in the Minister's constituency and another in the west of Ireland. This facility was very convenient to a large number of families in the midlands. Pupils could go home at the weekends. The relatively inexpensive cost was important to the families involved. In 1982-83 if students wish to take advantage of the same services they will have to travel the length and breadth of the country. The extra expense could have been avoided if the college had been taken over by the Department.
On a national scale, statistics from the training bodies in the industrial and agricultural field covering ACOT, CERT and the agricultural colleges, show that less than 30 per cent of the applicants for courses are females while over 50 per cent of our population are females. If we are not serious about providing training services in the field of agriculture our major industry will not prosper. The ICA and the IFA made strong recommendations when the Youth Employment Agency was being established for suitable courses to meet the needs of prospective farmers' wives. These courses have been available at St. Martha's for 50 years. I know numerous girls who have attended this college and have walked into jobs as instructors in home economics all over the country. This college is having a great effect on the local community from the point of view of young girls who can get their first year in basic rural economics.
The Minister will probably tell me that it is a matter for ACOT as to whether this college will be taken over and run. But I believe that when the Minister is providing money for ACOT he should have some say as to how it is spent and what training facilities he would like to see particularly for the young people in our community so many of whom will be unable to find jobs at the end of this year's school term. Here we have the premises and the facilities to provide courses for 70 to 90 students per year and it would be more beneficial to have this number on a course in this college than on the dole queues and unable to find a place in any walk of life. The Minister may also say that the Coalition Ministers for Agriculture and Finance did not provide money. But our budget was defeated here and it was not our budget that was implemented at the end of March. It is the money provided by the present Government for ACOT that should be spent on the taking over of this college.
Here I want to compliment the St. Vincent de Paul Society to which these nuns belong for giving the option to the Department and the board of ACOT to buy the premises lock, stock and barrel with its 200-acre farm and excellent dairy herd which could have been used by the Department as a demonstration college. I feel that this would be more beneficial than a stud farm for ponies in Connemara.