Shane Ross (Independent)

The lesson here is that the former Minister, Mr. Ray MacSharry, continues to have enormous influence and can pull a stroke for Sligo. It is quite obvious to anybody looking at the evidence that this decision was made on purely political grounds. The previous Minister wrote a letter confirming the decision on his last day in office to ensure it could not be reversed by Deputy Hanafin. Somebody probably foresaw that she would be the Minister for Education and Science and might reverse the decision as a representative from the constituency in which St. Catherine's College is situated. The previous Minister wrote an unnecessary letter which stated that this particular decision could not and should not be reversed just to lock Deputy Hanafin into it. The Minister is locked into a decision which is politically embarrassing because it relates to her constituency.

I would like now to put on record one or two thoughts on this issue as it applies first to Trinity College Dublin and, second, to the students involved. Despite the fact that this is a TCD-accredited degree I do not believe the authorities in TCD were apprised of or consulted about the decision. My experience in this House on matters of education has been that this Government, in particular, and the previous Government use them as a tool of political convenience whenever they feel like it. It was quite apparent when the Universities Bill was going through this House that the then Government and the subsequent Government, when the private Bill was introduced, promised consultation with the universities on important issues but did not deliver on it. Consultation is pretty irrelevant in political terms. It is a type of camouflage put out by party politicians to give the impression that there will be consultation but they then reject whatever opinion is given to them if they do not like it. It is apparent from this measure that when the Minister received from the consultant a result which he did not like, the political lobbyists from his party told him to take no notice of it and he rejected it.

I do not believe that the former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Dempsey, had the educational expertise to make a decision of this type. He had the political nous to know what would go down well with his cohorts in Sligo but he did not know much about St. Catherine's College or any of the other schools involved. He made his decision regardless of the report. He also overruled the decision of a senior civil servant and watched €1.3 million of public money being frittered away willy nilly. It is an extraordinary coincidence that the works were completed just as the decision was made.

I plead with the Minister to look not just at the interests of the teachers in her constituency with whom she met. She knows as well as I that there is no point meeting them, that is blancmange to keep the constituents happy.