James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I support the motion and join with my colleagues in calling on the Minister to rescind her predecessor's decision and to restore full status to St. Catherine's College of Education in Sion Hill. Given the Minister's speech this evening, it is clear that even though it would be in the interests of her constituents were she to rescind that decision, she will not make a U-turn in that regard.

Recently released documentation from the Department of Education and Science under the ruling of the Information Commissioner has shown that the former Minister made his decision regarding the closure of St. Catherine's College against the advice of consultants and officials from his Department. He then compounded his mistake by trying to hide details behind an error of judgment. It is obvious there was no co-ordination within the Department of Education and Science. I again ask the Minister to reconsider the consultants' recommendations, in particular the proposals in the O'Brien report referred to earlier by the Minister, that St. Catherine's College be merged with a Dublin-based university and to bring some cohesion into a Department which appears to be dangerously out of control. The Department is now in new hands and, hopefully, the Minister will improve on what was there before.

I would be astonished if the Minister were to hide behind the former Minister's extraordinary muddled and incoherent reasons for closing St. Catherine's College, reasons which strangely related to trustees and, as Senator MacSharry stated, a national spatial strategy. There is no doubt this Government has been a spendthrift one. It has perfected the art of spending by, on the one hand, squandering money and, on the other, taking from the most vulnerable among us. Enormous sums have been spent on building and refurbishing hospital wards which never opened.