It's rare that a students' union president calls for new buildings to be demolished, but that is what TCD union president Dave Tighe would like to see happen to Goldsmith Hall.

Planning permission is being sought for a £70 million development, including lecture theatres for the computer-science department and a massive underground sports complex. This complex, complete with a 25-metre pool, is said to rival Queen's in Belfast - an almost mythical happy hunting ground for college jocks.

Part of the plan involves Trinity leasing a site it owns adjacent to Goldsmith Hall and Westland Row DART station. Despite scepticism on the part of some property sources, Tighe - also a member of the college board - says Trinity will be able to secure £40 million though this arrangement.

However, a more revolutionary plan now being considered involves the construction of an 80-metre hotel on the vacant plot. This building, described in a confidential document obtained by Trinity News as an "elegant, slender, cylindrical tower", would be the highest in Dublin.

Were this to be constructed, it would involve the demolition of Goldsmith Hall - a prospect that, if properly phased to ensure no loss of student space, would find favour with Tighe. "It is a nightmare of a building," he says, pointing especially to acoustic problems; in a recent incident, three lectures were cancelled due to noise from an adjacent East Timor benefit.

The issue of the sports hall at Trinity has been a long running one. Since the 1996-97 academic year, students have been paying a £50 per year levy to fund a new sports complex, originally envisaged for the Westland Row site.