Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I wish to join with other Senators in congratulating and welcoming the new Minister for Education and Science to the House. We look forward to working with her over the coming years. I agree with Senator Brian Hayes that this is not a Dublin-Sligo issue. I pay tribute to the Dominican Order and all the staff at St. Catherine's College. I am delighted that some of them are present in the Gallery to hear the points of view from both sides of the House.

I pay tribute to them and the excellent work they have done since the college was founded in 1910. The degree course was introduced in the 1970s. However, the Dominican Order decided due to falling vocations and available private funding that it would withdraw, as a result of which the college must close at its current location and be transferred elsewhere.

As we heard already, there were numerous reports and much talk about this since the mid-1980s, when the Dominicans first mooted the possibility of ceasing to be trustees of the college. Mr. O'Brien's report stated that Government decisions of the late 1980s led to the establishment of a working group in the Department to consider future requirements for home economics teachers. The group, working on the basis of a total annual intake of 32 trainee students, recommended that provision be made for this number in St. Angela's College, Sligo, as the sole college providing teacher training in home economics. From this, we can see it was not unheard of that St. Angela's would be considered as the location. Throughout the compilation of his report, Mr. O'Brien consulted widely with St. Catherine's, the various Dublin colleges listed in the report, including TCD, DCU, UCD, the Dún Laoghaire college, DIT, etc., and St. Angela's in Sligo. Based on all the facts available to him, he drew up what was the best outcome in his opinion, which is but one interpretation of the facts. When I hear people say how the former Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, ignored the report——