Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí ar fad a ghlac pháirt sa díospóireacht. It is always a pleasure to come to the Seanad, if only to compare the type of debate with that of the Dáil. With the latter House perhaps having more local representatives, much of the debate there focused on the local representation and community involvement, whereas in the Seanad the debate revolved largely around the educational institutes and the education involvement. That is what this site is all about. The development of the Grangegorman site is, in the first instance, for the Dublin Institute of Technology.

I was interested to hear of various people claiming as much involvement as others in the Dublin Institute of Technology. It is to the credit of the DIT that so many people at all levels of society in Ireland have had an involvement in it. It is exactly 20 years ago since Senator Liam Fitzgerald, Deputy Pat Carey and I, all new members of the CDVEC, used to meet with the Minister for Education of the day, the current Leader of the House, Senator O'Rourke, to discuss issues pertaining to the DIT, when Eamon Tuffy was education officer there. It all comes back to haunt us.