Education Committee: The former minister for education and science, Mr Dempsey, received no written advice from his own Department that he should close St Catherine's College of Education for Home Economics (Sion Hill) in Dublin, an Oireachtas Committee heard yesterday. John Downes has this report.
The decision to close St Catherine's generated significant controversy earlier this year when it emerged that Mr Dempsey went against the advice of his own consultants' report in recommending that the college should be closed and its activities transferred to another college, St Angela's in Co Sligo.
Mr Paul Ryan, principal officer with the Department of Education and Science, told the Joint Committee on Education and Science that while the views contained in the report were "in accordance with the position taken by senior officials in the Department", this advice and the report "were only two elements" considered by the Minister in arriving at his decision to close the college.
"The other elements concerned national considerations of an overarching and strategic nature such as the National Spatial Strategy, relevant costs in a time of financial constraint, a Government decision to restrict public service numbers, the need to secure value for money and a better allocation of resources."
But responding to questions from the committee, he confirmed that no document had come from the Department arguing that the college should be closed down.
The committee is to consider at its next meeting whether to write to the new Minister, Ms Hanafin, expressing its concerns about the school's closure.
In an earlier presentation to the committee, the president of the college, Ms Madeleine Mulrennan, called for the decision to be reviewed by Ms Hanafin "before it is too late."
She had a number of concerns about the way in which the decision was arrived at, she said.
These included why information regarding the decision to close the college was initially withheld from it, the refusal by Mr Dempsey to meet with college authorities either before or after his decision, and the impact of lobbying by politicians and St Angela's on Mr Dempsey's decision.
"We want the Minister to reopen the file on St Catherine's. . .and to find a way to make good this bad decision," she said.