Hundreds of students held a protest rally in Cork yesterday to highlight their disapproval of the Government's delay in providing funding for a €55-million extension to the School of Music in the city promised two years ago.
Established in 1878, the Cork School of Music was the first municipal music school established in Ireland or Britain. It has more than 4,000 students enrolled - including 80 full-time degree students - receiving education and training in music, speech and drama.
Space limitations prevent the school, a constituent of the Cork Institute of Technology, from meeting the demand for places.
Since the project went for planning permission more than a year ago, most classes are being held in bedrooms at a city hotel.
Student anger at the delay in providing funding for the project resulted in a mass rally outside Cork Opera House yesterday.
The president of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, has expressed his support for the Cork School of Music, saying it would be a major blow to the city if construction of the new building failed to go ahead as planned.
He called on the Government to provide funding for the project as a matter of urgency to underpin a commitment to Cork's status as European City of Culture in 2005.
"If we start building almost immediately, we still run the serious risk of not being able to get the facility open in time for 2005.
"The Government should honour their commitment," Mr Cox asserted. "They should recognise the School of Music is the jewel in the crown of Cork's cultural institutions for young people."
Dr Geoffrey Spratt, director of the School of Music, told supporters at the rally yesterday it was not acceptable to the people of Cork that students should be denied the right to receive an education in an adequate building.
He added the Government was reneging on its commitment to Cork by putting the School of Music project on the back burner.
"The Cork School of Music is not elitist," Dr Spratt declared.
"It serves all the people of Cork and is proud of the contributions it makes to the cultural life of this great city.
"It has done much, but knows it can do so much more. Generations of dedicated staff have always done their very best by students. Cork will not allow 120 dedicated people, who have made unbelievable sacrifices, face an untenable future."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said yesterday officials were still in talks with the Department of Finance about the future of the project.
The public-private partnership deal was announced in April 2001.