Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Minister of State for explaining the present situation. I am not suggesting that anything permanent be done in the short term. What is not generally known among the citizens of Dublin is that in the old Rathmines Town Hall there was an auditorium that could accommodate some 2,000 people, which was before fire safety. It was a big concert hall that was used as a cinema and as a public meeting space and the like. Due to constraints in the past 20 years the College of Commerce in Rathmines, or its predecessor, put in a series of what are effectively prefab subdivisions on the ground floor of this substantial auditorium. If one can imagine the area of the auditorium, please consider the area of this Chamber where we now sit. Imagine where the Acting Chairperson is now sitting and this ground floor being covered in prefab internal structures, and the space above just left as a void. That is the situation that exists in Rathmines Town Hall. It is a real tragedy that it ever happened. I have looked at the former DIT technical institute building in Rathmines. There are serious limitations around toilet accommodation no matter who uses it, because it is in a basement and so on. I fully appreciate that the Minister has plans to build a second level school in the area. The interests of all these educational institutions and the local community can be looked at together and in the round. It would be a huge advantage for a school such as the one proposed to be built on this site, to have a major performing space for its purposes also. I ask that the Minister of State would keep an open mind on the matter and that irreversible decisions should not be made on silo thinking. There is a broader local interest to be taken into account between a number of very valuable educational institutions.