Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. Very high standards were set in Cavan Institute from the word go. I had the privilege of being the first chairman of the first board of management of that college. It has carried on a very fine tradition in ensuring that any public representative who visits to college gets a very warm welcome, in particular a Minister making an announcement of major investment in the future. There will always be a strong cead míle fáilte. The money would be put to good use.

Cavan-Monaghan ETB in anticipation of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science's roll-out of the new capital investment programme is preparing a proposal which will meet the criteria. As I have said to the Minister both in this House and in Cavan that day, I believe the preference is to have as much of the accommodation of the college as possible on one site. There is plenty of space there and thanks to the successful negotiation between the then County Cavan VEC and the local authority at the time, a prime piece of land, practically in the town, was made available to the VEC to develop that college. We want the broader expansion of it to ensure it continues to grow and has adequate accommodation for the students attending.

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