Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 22 May 1996

Vol. 465 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - Transfer of Art Education Course.

Mr. Briscoe

I regret the Minister herself did not see fit to come into the House because this matter does not correctly fall within the remit of the Minister for State, Deputy Allen.

The art education annex of the National College of Art and Design is due to be moved back to Thomas Street from Leinster Lane next year when phase three of the development has been completed. In the meantime, the premises in Leinster Lane are required by the Office of Public Works. Accordingly, the current student population of approximately 100 will be moved out to the Carysfort complex from 30 September 1996 until next year. This move will adversely affect final year students, most especially because of the distance they will have to travel to avail of library and other facilities which do not exist in Carysfort.

There are three main points I want to put to the Minister. Access to essential library facilities will be severely affected, resulting not only in increased academic pressure but also calling into question the quality of their qualifications and, ultimately, their ability to teach other students. These are the comments of the students themselves. They say also that access to college facilities, such as the student's union, college doctor and counsellor will also be severely depleted. The essential nature of these facilities for the development of proper representation of students has been well documented.

The students state that access to a range of artistic facilities and simulti forms an integral part of their core education and that their artistic development will also be affected. In other words, this transfer in their final year will have an enormously damaging effect.

I request the Minister to ask the Office of Public Works to defer the begining of work in Leinster Lane until the college campus in Thomas Steet is completed in October 1997.

It appears that the Minister's Department has side-kicked this to the Higher Education Authority. The proposal that students and staff of the faculty of education be transferred from 30 June next to agreed accommodation in UCD until such time as the buildings in Thomas Street have been completed was put to them only on 10 May.

The students wrote seeking a meeting with the Minister, to which she replied by letter dated 30 April that, due to previous commitments, she would be unable to meet them over the next few weeks. Since the education conferences are now over, I ask the Minister to meet a couple of student representatives. These are not hysterical or screaming students but fine young people of whom we should be very proud who will bring much cultural education to our people. We need people like them with confidence in themselves, who can be confident that their qualifications in their final year will not be looked down on by those who will know they did not have the same facilities as other students in their final year. I would be very happy if the Minister of State would confirm that his colleague, the Minister for Education, would meet a couple of students and listen to them put their case, which they did very eloquently when I met them.

The excuse was being advanced that a crèche was needed by Dáil Deputies, about which members of the Joint Committee on Women's Rights are very annoyed. I spoke to their chairperson, Deputy Mary Wallace, who confirmed that there had not been even one request by any Member of the Dáil for such crèche facilities, that there may have been such requests by staff members, and pointing out that the crèche referred to forms a very small part of the overall complex. It appears somebody, in a rather snide manner, decided they would get away with this work and, at the same time, blacken the names of Members of this House.

I ask the Minister of State to convey my request to the Minister to meet a couple of these students. Ten or 15 minutes is all that would be required. It would mean a lot to them and convince them they had a Minister for Education who cared about them and their future. I should prefer that she would defer the work proposed by the Office of Public Works who apparently are demanding this site.

Minister of State at the Department of Education (Mr. Allen)

I am grateful to Deputy Briscoe for raising this matter and I am glad of the opportunity to advise the House of the up-to-date position regarding the National College of Art and Design.

As the Deputy is aware, it was decided in 1983 that NCAD, which had been located in Kildare Street since 1815, would be transferred to a newly-acquired property known as the Cooperage at Thomas Street and that the transfer would be undertaken in a number of phases. To date two phases of development have been completed. The third phase, which would allow the remainder of the property at Leinster Lane to be fully vacated, was deferred by the Government in late 1987 even though the project had reached an advanced stage of planning.

To my regret, in all that time, nothing whatsoever was done to advance the project.

The Minister for Education, Deputy Bhreathnach, recognising the unsuitability of the property and the urgent need to rehouse the college's staff and students currently located at Leinster Lane, set aside £4 million under the 1994-1999 Third Level European Regional Development Fund Programme for the phase III development. This will allow NCAD's existing staff and students to be accommodated on the main campus at Thomas Street.

Planning permission has now been granted for the project and it is envisaged that construction work will commence later in 1996 and be completed, at the earliest, in the latter part of 1997.

To expedite matters the Department has already given the go-ahead to preliminary site works, including an archaeological dig and piling. The office of Public Works, the owner of the site at Leinster Lane, has plans for its development which includes the provision of additional library and new créche facilities for Dáil Éireann. To allow this development to commence at the earliest possible date consultations have been taking place between the Higher Education Authority, the governing body of NCAD, my Department and the Department of Finance. The Deputy will note that my Department has not washed its hands of the matter and passed it to HEA. A number of options have been investigated and considered by the governing body of NCAD and the HEA. These include the use of space in UCD's Graduate Business School in Blackrock to accommodate the education course staff and students.

All options are at present being considered by this Department but I want to assure the Deputy and, more partic ularly, the staff and students at present located at Leinster Lane that no decision has been taken to date and that consultations are continuing between this Department, the Department of Finance and Office of Public Works on the matter.

The Dáil adjourned at 9.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 23 May 1996.