About 20 years ago some land in the Blanchardstown area was reserved for a regional technical college. Whatever about the other planning decisions in the satellite towns, this one was far seeing. At present Blanchardstown has a population of 65,000, a large town by any standard. The teenage population would be peaking at this time; most of the families who came to Blanchardstown approximately 20 years ago and their children would be approaching the stage where they would hope to avail of third level education.
A recent report said the next regional technical college in Dublin should be on the northside; Finglas and Blanchardstown are said to be under consideration and I want to make the case for Blanchardstown. The report suggested there may be a distortion in the figures for the satellite town of Blanchardstown because in the more affluent part of the district, near Castleknock, there is a reasonably high number of teenagers availing of third level places. However in the bulk of the area there would be a low percentage of school leavers in a position to avail of third level education. The Minister will be aware that successive reports and studies have shown that when a regional technical college or other third level facility is provided in an area, the rate of third level participation in that community increases dramatically.
The decision to reserve the site was correct but unfortunately I have been arguing with Dublin Corporation about this over the last three years, both in this Chamber and in Dublin County Council. Under the reform of local government one of the arrangements to be made was that any local authority with property and assets in another local authority area had to transfer those assets to that local authority unless certain contracts had been entered into.
In the case of the regional technical college site, Dublin Corporation, which is the landowner, had not entered into negotiations to sell this land but quickly did so, as it did with a considerable amount of land in Fingal. The corporation has made about £11.5 million from land it has sold off in the Blanchardstown area alone. It has certainly made a killing; we often hear references to property speculators and Dublin Corporation has shown itself as good as the best of them in this regard.
A number of unfortunate events will distort the planning and development of Blanchardstown for the future. Specifically in relation to the regional technical college, I must acknowledge the site was first offered to the Department of Education; the Minister, still Deputy Bhreathnach, said she did not want to take up the offer of the site. On foot of that they offered the site to Green Property Company Limited which is developing the town centre adjacent to the regional technical college. My understanding is that Green Property Company Limited has a first refusal on the land for a period of two years and, to its credit, it is willing to dispose of the site to the Department of Education should it require it. Will the Minister give an undertaking to purchase the site because if it is not purchased we can wave goodbye to any prospect of a third level facility for the greater Blanchardstown area?
The first line of attack, or the first marker we must put down for the Blanchardstown area, is that we will reserve the site. Following that, I would hope for a commitment in the immediate future to build on it, but I would accept at least, as a gesture of the Minister's good faith, that she would immediately contact Dublin Corporation and Green Property Company Limited and advise that she wishes to take up the option on the site and purchase it.
The Minister attended the House recently on another issue which I raised regarding the Blanchardstown area. It would not be too strong an argument to say that the people of Blanchardstown are beginning to wonder what they did to warrant the anger of the Minister for Education because a playing pitch facility appears to be lost to the community and, what is much more important, if this piece of land is lost then the prospect of ever having a third level facility in Blanchardstown would be gone. We need a commitment from the Minister to acquire the site and, hopefully, when she then decides on the next third level college for the northside of the city she will consider Blanchardstown as the location.
