PLANS to turn a National College of Art and Design (NCAD) building near Leinster House into a Dail creche are being resisted by students, who yesterday picketed a board meeting of the college.
More than 150 education and fine art students at NCAD have been told to vacate the Government owned premises at Leinster Lane by the end of June to make way for the creche. The students will be accommodated in a new building on the main NCAD campus in Thomas Street front autumn 1997, but the college is experiencing difficulty finding temporary accommodation until then.
Plans to house the students for the year in the old Carysfort teacher training college in Blackrock have been described as "completely unrealistic" by the students' union. "Such a move would cut the students off from the facilities in Thomas Street, and from the sense of belonging to a third level institution," according to Ms Leonie Prendergast, president of the union.
She said: "Obviously, the children of the staff and the TDs in Leinster House are already in creches at the moment, so could they not wait until our new building is complete in 1997?"
