David Norris (Independent)

I ask the Leader to pass on to the Minister for Education and Skills my congratulations on the decision to develop the Grangegorman site for the Dublin Institute of Technology. It is important that this important educational institution should be brought together and concentrated on a very fine campus on which there is room for expansion. That decision has certain implications. A number of the buildings are out of date and not in good condition. However, at least one is a significant building, which is the school of catering in Cathal Brugha Street. It is one of three extraordinarily fine art deco buildings in Dublin and I hope it will be preserved as has the former Gas Company headquarters, which is now the school of nursing for Trinity College, and the building housing the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation across the road from this building, which is a superb building. We have three very fine art deco buildings and I hope the third one will be preserved following the move.

There is another implication. Regrettably, but I suppose understandably, the Minister for Health has again had to postpone a decision on the site of the new national children's hospital. This is a very urgent issue. I regret that both Houses will have risen when this decision will be announced. I have been lobbied by a number of groups, all of which present good cases for particular sites. There is a suggestion that the Mater hospital site is still in play. If this is the one that is chosen, taking that in conjunction with Grangegorman, it will mean considerable location of new developments on the north side of the city, which will have implication for possible reconsideration of the metro project given that the Government has committed itself to capital projects in so far as it is able to get the finance. Finance is - or at least was - partially available through the European Union and at one stage the Japanese Mitsui Corporation was lined up to take a considerable amount of that charge. If in addition to these two projects we could get more people back to work on this project, it would be very welcome.