Mr. Patrick B. Diggins:

We assume that they applied all of their profits towards education. The Brigidine convent was wonderful in the 1950s but it was in a serious state of disrepair and the VEC school was very small. The Patrician Brothers in Ballyfin decided that they wanted out. They had a boarding school and a day school which was serviced by pupils being bussed in every day. They decided, as school communities, that they would bring all of this together to give the students a better deal. After around three fairly hard years of work involving consultation, communication and so forth, agreement was reached that a new community college would be erected on the Limerick Road outside Mountrath. It is a beautiful, well-appointed school. The Brigidine convent school reverts to whatever it can revert to. The Ballyfin site is now host to a very successful business. All three schools came together to develop a new school. I visited the new school recently and it is in wonderful shape. I had the privilege of working with the stakeholders over the three-year period to help to bring about this amalgamation.

No two amalgamations are the same. They generally happen because one school has seen its numbers dropping. With falling numbers comes falling teacher numbers and a crisis point is reached. Sometimes another school appears out of the blue with what looks like a good deal but it may only be a good deal for that particular school while the other one will suffer. Out of that, one must try to create some method of consultation that will make the best building available for the purposes required. It is no different in Cork. There are many schools there watching each other. One group gets a privileged position while the others suffer and so forth. It will require a lot more consultation and I hope that process has now begun, although it should have begun in a different manner.