Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, has responsibility for third level provision. As the Deputy will be aware, what we need to do is consolidate the institutions of technology in Dublin into one strong technological university that has the capacity to span all of the needs of the city. Small stand-alone third level institutions is the direction we have been taking. We need strong institutions. While I am not ruling the idea of new colleges in the future, the trend in recent times has been to strengthen the institutions we have and grow from the existing base. That is only a general comment.

The point made by the Deputy is a valid one. We do look at the type of occupancy that one would expect in see in developments as they come on stream. That is factored into the plan. It is not a case of looking in a rigid way at the birth rates. Given these types of developments are going to become an increasing feature of integrated planning, which we will have to adhere to if we are to meet the ambitions of the national framework, I will ask my Department to take a fresh look at how we deal with the education planning of SDZs because I think the issue warrants attention.

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