The Office of Public Works has announced plans for a £25 million extension to Leinster House, to be built on a site occupied in part by the National College of Art and Design.
Mr Martin Cullen, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, said yesterday that there was a "clear need" for additional office space and committee rooms to cater for the growing number of people working in the Leinster House complex.
The Government aimed to ensure that the facilities available to the Dail and Seanad kept up with the pace of reform in parliamentary procedures, he said, adding that it was no longer possible or desirable to do this on an ad hoc basis.
Announcing Government approval of a sum of £25 million to fund the proposed extension - due to be finished in the year 2000 - he said that it would be "capable of meeting the needs of all the members of these Houses for the foreseeable future".
Mr Cullen said that the options available for the precincts of Leinster House had been examined "exhaustively", leading to a conclusion that redeveloping the College of Art site - half of which is occupied by party rooms - was the "best solution".
The college is to vacate the site in mid-1998, moving its remaining departments to Thomas Street, where most of its students are already located. Party rooms are to be relocated temporarily in Agriculture House.
The existing college buildings just north of Leinster House are to be demolished to make way for the new extension. Only the west wing of the college, including its fine gallery, is to be retained as an annexe to the adjoining National Library.
The new accommodation, amounting to almost 90,000 square feet, will include members' rooms, waiting rooms and party offices as well as a creche and fitness centre and an extensive suite of hearing rooms for parliamentary committees.
The extension, which is likely to be at least four storeys high, will also provide much-improved press facilities, including a multimedia briefing room and the "possibility" of a separate work space for political correspondents.
"There will be much better access for the public as well, which is very important in the context of Leinster House," Mr Cullen said. "And what will go in there won't just satisfy the needs of today, but should last into the medium-term future."
Apart from providing "state-of-the-art" facilities, he said the new building would have to be designed very sensitively in relation to its immediate neighbours - notably the National Library, the National Gallery and Leinster House itself.
Asked whether there was any intention of incorporating the National Museum into the Oireachtas complex, Mr Cullen said that this was "not really a matter for today".
Mr Barry Murphy, the OPW's chairman, said that the restoration of the museum's decaying facade - now well under way - had to be completed "irrespective of any other use we might have for the building".
