James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. It is a huge site. There are vast lands with it.

I refer to the feasibility study on the ambulance training unit going into the old building in St. Raphael's. It is a beautiful building. It is almost like one of the old buildings you see in Trinity College but it has been left derelict and vacant for some time. It is sealed and contained. It is not as run down as some other empty derelict units would be.

I would encourage usage of older buildings where possible, particularly around an education campus. That will serve its purpose for decades if it were reinvested in rather than going through the hoops of trying to attain planning and trying to go down the road of a new greenfield site and all the trouble and hardship that can come with that. I know the witnesses will be coming back to me about the ambulance training college but on that feasibility study, there is a building sitting there.