Michael Brennan (Fianna Fail)

I ask the Minister to bring forward proposals and funding for the development plan for Mary Immaculate College of Education, Limerick. Everybody acknowledges the tremendous contribution the college has made in training primary school teachers over the past 100 years. It has increased its student numbers from 600 in 1992 to 2,300 at present. This has been done at the request of the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Education Authority in order to tackle the shortage of primary school teachers. However, the increase has been implemented without a corresponding growth in facilities at the college and the extra students are using substandard facilities.

The last custom-built building was erected in Mary Immaculate College in 1979. A massive plan for the college's development, as part of the national development plan, has been submitted to the Department. I ask the Minister to ensure that the physical education teaching building proceed on the agreed schedule, with building commencing in spring 2003, that the infrastructural works required for the building development programme be progressed as scheduled, that advance design work on the three building phase of the college proceed as planned and that such work be brought to tender stage in readiness for immediate activation when further funding becomes available to carry out construction work.