Politicians found themselves centre stage in the National College of Art and Design in Thomas Street yesterday.
Local representatives Seán Ardagh TD, Mary Upton TD and councillor Eric Byrne were invited to speak at a seminar organised by the NCAD Students' Union to explore issues arising from the possible relocation of the college to UCD's Belfield campus.
Considerable opposition has been expressed by students and staff in the college since it emerged last October that the NCAD board was looking at the feasibility of such a move. NCAD director Colm O'Briain, facing the student body for the first time in public on the issue, had a bumpy ride but defended himself and the college board robustly. The college, he argued, was starved of resources in the increasingly competitive world of Irish third-level education. In the absence of capital funding, the board had to explore other options.
Student Union president Nessa Darcy was the first speaker. "The vast majority, if not all the students, are united in the opinion that moving NCAD from Thomas Street to the suburbs is the worst idea ever," she said. She urged the board to direct its energies into improving and expanding the college where it stands.
Seán Ardagh TD expressed himself to be on everyone's side, open to the students' arguments from the heart and the director's arguments from the head.
What he could do was to see that the students' concerns were put to the Oireachtas Committee on Education, he said.
Mary Upton TD was more forthright. The NCAD, she pointed out "is the college that is most representative of the Liberties area".
It had something that UCD, from her own direct experience, sadly lacked: a sense of community. Councillor Eric Byrne said that wherever the future of the college lay, the students deserved better, and he urged them to apply direct political pressure.
As a senior planner, Kieran Rose said that he thought it would be particularly inopportune to lose NCAD just as the area was taking off. It had a pivotal role to play in the development of Thomas Street as a creative corridor, extending from the Chester Beatty Library to the Digital Hub and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
