Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I too welcome the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, to the House. It is a pleasure to see her here and I am sure she will do a fine job in her new role. I heard her on different programmes over the weekend and she came across well. I am sure she will be a caring Minister for Education and Science.

I have listened to the Opposition and agree with Senator Brian Hayes when he said it is not a matter of St. Angela's versus St. Catherine's or of Sligo versus Dublin. Senator Scanlon put it well when he said there was room for only one home economics college in the country. Bearing in mind the decentralisation programme, it seems the Minister considered decentralisation, as well as sound economic and educational reasons, when making up his mind.