I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 and 74 together.
In answering previous parliamentary questions on this subject, the Minister made it very clear that while her preference for an academy had been the Earlsfort Terrace location, the scope, the content, the standard of pedagogy and the ethos of the academy were the crucial issues and should not be constrained by focusing first on a particular site or location.
Issues in the debate on where the academy might be located have been informed in recent times by the production of two reports which were prepared at the behest of the Minister for Education and Science and the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. These are the report of an interdepartmental working group, chaired by Mr. Noel Lindsay, and the report from Dr. Peter Renshaw of the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Both of these reports are in the Library of the House. The suitability of the Earlsfort Terrace site for the academy was considered in the course of all these deliberations. Resulting from Dr. Renshaw's report, however, the recommended option was to adopt a "nodal" approach for the academy on economic, educational and cultural grounds. The nodes recommended in the Renshaw report are those to be located in Dublin on a site in the DCU campus, at the Irish World Music Centre in the University of Limerick and at the Firkin Crane in Cork. This recommendation has been accepted.
In this House on 3 June 1999, the Minister stated that the traditional model of a single location academy or conservatoire is being questioned, especially in a European context. The Minister went on to say that it is essential that we establish the correct model here. She is now satisfied, in the light of the extensive deliberations which have taken place, that the model of an academy concentrated in one location in one building would not be appropriate in the light of the most up-to-date and informed thinking on the role and functions of such an institution.
The report produced by Dr. Renshaw drew on many sources and sectors in preparing the recommendations, including interviews with representatives of the Dublin Institute of Technology. The Minister recently received a submission from Dublin Institute of Technology relating to the proposed academy of the performing arts. The Deputy is aware that the Minister for Education and Science recently announced the establishment of a planning and steering group to plan for the development of the academy. The Minister is referring the submission received from the Dublin Institute of Technology to this group which, as part of its work, will consult widely with interested parties. It will be open to all relevant bodies, including Trinity College, to make submissions to the group when it commences work. My Department will be represented on the group and will contribute to its deliberations on issues relating to the performing arts in particular.
