Time may be running out for the State to acquire Ballyfin House and demesne, just outside Portlaoise, for use as a sporting, educational and cultural facility.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands said this week that requests that it should buy the property were "under consideration".
The house and 600-acre grounds and farm are being sold by the Patrician Brothers, who can no longer afford the running costs.
As well as the costs, the brothers are dealing with the reality of declining vocations and few of the brothers still teach. Of an estimated 40 Patrician Brothers in the State, only about a dozen now teach, two of them at Ballyfin. The brothers run the secondary school at Ballyfin and local people are anxious that this tradition be maintained.
It has been agreed that the brothers will stay on until the current year's intake of students, and next year's, have been through the second-level cycle. In the meantime, the Department of Education is planning to build a community school in Portlaoise.
Ballyfin has been owned by the Patrician Brothers for close to a century and they ran a boarding school at the site until the 1980s. When that was discontinued, it became a co-ed school which has about 500 students now.
Ballyfin House is a heritage house and the Department of Arts recently granted £1 million for badly needed roof repairs. This, however, is described by the brothers as a drop in the ocean of administrative and running costs for the huge property and farm.
Laois County Council has been vociferous in its requests to the State to take the house into its ownership before it is bought by a private buyer. It has come up with a long list of potential public uses for the sizeable property.
The council wrote to the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Martin Cullen, who also has responsibility for the OPW, asking him to meet a deputation to discuss Ballyfin. The Patrician Brothers also received a letter asking them to delay the sale to allow the council to petition the Government to buy the estate.
A spokeswoman for the OPW said the correspondence had been passed on to the Department of Arts. It is understood the State has expressed an initial interest in Ballyfin, but sources close to the deal don't expect the Government to come up with the £7.5 million asking price.
Mr Louis Brennan of Laois County Council said he had suggested that Ballyfin could be used as an architectural museum. The council also proposed its possible use as an artists' retreat.
Local parents have also set up a lobby group to have the second-level tradition continued when the brothers move out. A children's play park is also on the list of proposals, as is the idea that Ballyfin become a permanent home for the Community Games.
The property is so large that it could accommodate any one or many of these functions, Mr Brennan said.
"There's ample room. We do not have to spend millions on it immediately. All we have to do is acquire it now."
The estate agent acting for the Patricians, Mr Pat O'Sullivan, said he believed agreement could be reached with a potential private buyer within a couple of months.
Brother James O'Rourke, provincialate of the Patrician Broth- ers, said the order was proceeding with its plan to amalgamate its educational facility at Ballyfin with the VEC. In line with this policy, the property outside Portlaoise was still for sale.
"The cost of keeping Ballyfin going is enormous and our auditors have said we could get into serious difficulties with it." He admitted it was sad to have to put Ballyfin on the market.