Mary Henry (Independent)

I thank Senator Norris for sharing his time with me. I welcome the Minister to the House. I am sure she will make a splendid contribution to education in this country. I agree with what Senator Norris has said. I too am concerned that Sion Hill graduates who, for the past 25 years have received Trinity College degrees, will now apparently have that degree abolished. Under the Universities Act, universities were in a position to establish degree courses with autonomy, but apparently the Minister can now take them away. This seems to be an extraordinary situation and I can see that the Minister looks puzzled herself. I do not think this has been taken into account. It was suggested that the merger should be with UCD but TCD, after all, has a long association with Sion Hill, so I wonder why that option was not considered further.

Students said the move to Sligo would deny them any semblance of a third level campus, which was suggested as being important in the consultant's report. The relevance of that fact should be noted. It is hard to accept what has happened, given the importance of the recent all-island report on nutrition. That report stated that in the ten years from 1992-2002 adults gained, on average, six kilos. I only gained three in that period so many people must have gained nine kilos to get an average figure of six. We have a problem with nutrition in this country and a task force on obesity has been established. We need to have more people involved in home economics and nutrition, yet two such colleges are now to be combined.

We have not taken into account the fact that there may be different approaches to home economics within these colleges. On an island of this size it is important to have diverse courses and points of view. The Minister should do her utmost to get this decision reversed. St. Catherine's College is in her constituency and I am quite sure she has received plenty of representations about it on a personal level. As Senator Norris has said, I would like to see this matter examined from the point of view of the Universities Act. To breach that Act in this way would be truly dreadful.