Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It is interesting to see how the academic world will support the Dublin Institute of Technology. The major difficulty between a plan for Adamstown and a plan for the Grangegorman site is that Adamstown is a town. It is largely made up of residents and the facilities needed by those residents, which is why consultation with the major stakeholders, the community, is important. In Grangegorman the major stakeholders are the Dublin Institute of Technology and the HSE. These are the bodies that will occupy the site. That is the major difference between the two situations.

We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the local residents have been included at all stages. At the time the agency begins its consultation and its development of the strategic plan there will already be a resident appointed to it. The residents are involved in rather than outside the process. The consultative group is a further example of this.

We have also gone to great lengths on the matter of how to determine who is to be elected to the agency. In so far as we can facilitate the local community, recognising its major interests, we have done so. However, the principle users of this site are the people who should be consulted on the strategic plan.