The House will now hear one minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for Education and the Minister for Tourism and Transport. I propose to call on, first, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan and then Deputy David Andrews to make one minute statements appropriate to the Minister for Education in the first instance to be followed by a statement appropriate to the Minister for Tourism and Transport by Deputy Tony Gregory. The Deputies are entitled to one minute in respect of each matter and the Ministers concerned have five minutes between them to reply.
Adjournment Debate. - Education and Tourism and Transport Matters.
The Olympic Council of Ireland made a special submission to the Government in 1989 for a commitment of £1.75 per annum for each Olympic four year cycle. They receive £500,000 at the moment. After extensive lobbying of Government Ministers for the past six months, including the Taoiseach, expectations were high that the Government would respond positively and make a substantial contribution in the budget towards the preparation of potential Olympic participations. However, they were disappointed. There was no reference to the Olympics or, indeed, to sport in the Budget Statement. To add insult to injury, the Olympic Council of Ireland were informed that the £200,000 which was always made available on the third year of the Olympic cycle will not now be forthcoming from the Government. At the moment the 21 sporting organisations affiliated to the Olympic Council of Ireland are preparing training schemes for their potential Olympic participants in Barcelona. Their programme will be greatly restricted without the necessary finance. I appeal to the Minister and the Government to make £500,000 available immediately to the Irish Olympic Council so that our athletes are given every chance in Barcelona to win a medal.
I am making a special appeal on behalf of an exceptional national school in the constituency of Dún Laoghaire. This school, located at Blackrock, is Carysfort national school. This national school has an exceptional school manager with an outstanding parent association. I ask the Minister for Education through her contacts with the new owners of the Carysfort College education complex to concede two things to this national school, (1) a gymnasium or possibly through the good offices of the authorities the use of the gymnasium there and (2) more particularly the additional use of land by the national school children. It is very important that these children have additional land within the land already there and now owned by the UCD authorities. I believe that with goodwill on both sides there can be little doubt that the wishes of the school authorities of Carysfort national school may be granted in respect of those two requests.
The Government and Dublin Corporation have given a commitment to the people of the Sheriff Street flats complex to rehouse them as far as possible in their own North Wall parish. Corporation architects have drawn up a detailed redevelopment plan based largely on derelict, disused land and buildings in the Seville Place-Spencer Dock area. Much of that land is in the process of being acquired by Dublin Corporation.
The difficulty is that Irish Rail have refused to sell a site that stretches along the Royal Canal. This strip of land is crucial to the corporation architect's rehousing plan both in terms of the number of houses that could be built on it and the fact that its location would maximise the use of adjoining sites which the corporation are acquiring.
This land has been disused, derelict, a dump and an eyesore for decades. CIE never had use for it during that time yet Irish Rail admit they still have no short term or long term proposal on the drawing board for it. It is wide enough for a single line. The excuse given by Irish Rail is they might need a commuter rail link to the proposed national sports centre some time in the future, yet, Connolly Station is less than two minutes walk from that site. There are also numerous rail lines across the Royal Canal leading to the goods yard at the North Wall. A new single line seems unnecessary and wasteful in the extreme or would appear to be merely a red herring to allow Irish Rail to retain a site so that they can dispose of it at a speculative price at a later date.
In 1990 the Olympic Council of Ireland received £505,000 from the Department of Education. That grant was paid as follows: £475,000 for the preparation and training of Olympic sports persons for the 1992 Olympic Games to be held in Barcelona and £30,000 towards the provision of medical equipment for testing and assessment of those sports persons by medical specialists at the Blackrock Clinic on behalf of the medical commission of the Olympic Council of Ireland.
It can be confirmed that the grant to the Olympic Council of Ireland for 1991 will not be less than £505,000 which will be allocated in the same ratio as last year and will be for the same purposes.
We recognise that 1991 is the penultimate year in the current four-year Olympic cycle. Certainly a very strong case has been made for extra funding by the Olympic Council of Ireland. My difficulty is that the same amount of money made available in 1990 for the current development of sport will be made available again in 1991. Consequently it will not be possible for me to effect any major increase in the amount of money being made available to the Olympic Council of Ireland.
However, I want to assure the House that the proper presentation and preparation of our Olympic athletes will not be neglected and that, in our discussions with the Olympic Council, we will endeavour to ensure that the needs of our athletes are catered for. Of course, I should say this is in addition to very significant amounts of money being given to the governing bodies of sport and to the athletes themselves under the elite sportspersons grants and now to the various coaching schemes, such as the National Coaching Centre, all of which are geared to the best possible preparation of our athletes.
With regard to Deputy Andrews's question I should say the Carysfort complex, as he said, was acquired recently by University College Dublin. Therefore the availability of facilities is a matter which should be dealt with by the UCD authorities. However, the Department are aware that the UCD authorities would be pleased to discuss the matters raised by Deputy Andrews with the relevant school authorities. We will be most anxious to see the school authorities facilitated in a mutually acceptable manner.
In regard to the extra land required, again Deputy Andrews on a number of occasions advanced a forceful case that such land be made available. We would like to see an accommodation arrived at between the UCD authorities and the school authorities which would be acceptable to the school. I want to assure the Deputy that my Department are quite happy to be supportive of an initiative of this kind.
I fully appreciate the need to rehouse the tenants of Sheriff Street Flats, and I will lend my support, where practicable, to ensure that everything is done to accommodate their requirements. My colleague, the Minister for the Environment, has already been in touch with me to ensure that the tenants are rehoused in the locality on a phased basis and to the greatest extent possible in the parish of St. Laurence O'Toole.
Dublin Corporation, in consultation with the tenants of the flats, prepared a plan which identified a number of sites which could be utilised for a housing development for the displaced tenants. The plan identified three possible sites in the ownership of CIE, the largest of which was the Spencer Dock site referred to by the Deputy. My Department have been in contact with CIE about having land owned by CIE at Spencer Dock made available to Dublin Corporation to rehouse the tenants. In this context I understand that the CIE Board recently agreed terms with Dublin Corporation for the sale of a site at Spencer Avenue near the Spencer Dock which will accommodate approximately 25 houses.
I understand that the legal formalities in connection with the sale of the property at Spencer Avenue will be finalised shortly. I hope that work on the construction of the new housing accommodation at this site will commence soon.
At my request, CIE examined the possibility of providing other sites to Dublin Corporation for the required housing. However, the outcome of the investigation revealed that the properties were required by the CIE Board for operational purposes. Further discussions between Dublin Corporation and CIE are continuing with a view to identifying other possibilities to satisfy Dublin Corporation's requirements in this case.
With regard to the site at Spencer Dock, CIE have indicated that they wish to retain this land for possible future rail development to cater for anticipated traffic in the Custom House Docks development area.
It is the view of the board of CIE that the trend of commercial development established by the Customs House development site is likely to extend eastward and that the Spencer Dock site is ideally suited for CIE to exploit the passenger traffic opportunities that will be associated with this development.
Finally I would like to take this opportunity to assure the Deputy and the House that, in consultation with CIE, I will be examining all the various issues with a view to establishing whether anything further can be done to facilitate Dublin Corporation in accommodating the tenants of the Sheriff Street Flats.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.30 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 7 February 1991.